Winning Manila Sixth District Representative Joey Chua Uy filed a petition before the Supreme Court on Monday seeking to immediately stop the Commission on Elections (Comelec) from enforcing its resolutions that nullified his victory in the May 2025 midterm elections.
In a 75-page petition for certiorari and prohibition, Uy, through his counsel Gialogo & Associates led by Atty. Edward Gialogo, urged the High Court to set aside the Comelec Second Division’s 18 June 2025 resolution and the Comelec en banc’s 30 June 2025 resolution that annulled his proclamation and named his rival, Bienvenido “Benny” Abante Jr., as the duly elected member of the House.
Uy also asked the Court to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) to bar the Comelec from implementing the questioned resolutions. He further urged the Court to issue a writ of preliminary injunction or a status quo ante order (SQA) to allow him to assume his post pending the resolution of the case.
The congressman maintained that he had already formally assumed office on 30 June 2025 after being proclaimed winner on 13 May 2025, having secured 64,746 votes against Abante’s 63,358.
Uy took his oath before Manila RTC Executive Judge Carolina Icasiano-Sison on 26 May 2025.
“Any further attempt to challenge Cong. Joey’s qualification or his right to hold office — including actions by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) — falls outside of Comelec’s jurisdiction and is now properly within the exclusive purview of the HRET," Uy said in his petition.
“As of that moment, COMELEC was divested of all authority to enforce or execute any decision or ruling concerning Cong. Joey’s election, returns, or qualifications. Thus, any further attempt by COMELEC to implement these Resolutions clearly exceeds its constitutional jurisdiction,” he added.
The petition named the Comelec and Abante, who filed the disqualification case, as respondents.
Uy argued that the Comelec acted with grave abuse of discretion when it ruled that he is not a natural-born Filipino citizen, without conducting a clarificatory hearing. The poll body held that Uy is a naturalized citizen since he was born in 1962 to a Chinese father and a mother who allegedly lost her Filipino citizenship by marrying a foreign national.
Uy refuted this, saying that his mother’s marriage to a foreigner did not cause her to lose her citizenship, and that being born to a Filipino mother and alien father makes him a natural-born Filipino who need not elect citizenship.
He said, “The Petition shows that Abante failed to specifically point any legal basis in saying that women would automatically lose their Filipino citizenship and acquire that of their foreign husband. Neither was there a showing, nor any attempt to prove that Cong. Joey’s mother acquired Chinese citizenship by virtue of Chinese law.”
Even assuming election of Philippine citizenship was required, Uy argued he had complied with the requirement informally by registering and voting as a Filipino, seeking and holding public office, and publicly identifying as Filipino all his life.
He also questioned Comelec’s reliance on identification certificates submitted by Abante, which he described as mere photocopies allegedly provided by an unnamed “concerned citizen.”
He stressed, “Mere photocopies, without proper certification or attestation by the officer with legal custody, do not satisfy the evidentiary standards required by the Rules of Court and jurisprudence.”
The petition emphasized that the photocopied documents are inadmissible under the Rules of Evidence and therefore should not have been used by the Comelec in its ruling.