HRET starts resolving poll protests

Twenty-one lawmakers face possible ouster as the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET) starts resolving the election protests between now and 2019 or the entire three-year duration of the 17th Congress.

The nine-year-old body will now be headed by Supreme Court Justice Presbitero Velasco and joined by his fellow magistrates Diosdado Peralta and Arturo Brion. House members will fill six other posts.

Under the rules adopted in 2015, election disputes may be filed before the HRET within 15 days after the subject of the complaint has officially taken over the contested seat in the concerned legislative district.

The HRET will no longer accept cases against congress men who have already been proclaimed by the Commission on Elections and who have started executing their duties as congressman since July 1, or when the 17th Congress started.

But poll protests may be lodged against House members who have yet to assume their posts.

Northern Samar Rep. Raul Daza and his political rival, former congressman Harlin Abayon, are once again locked in an electoral protest af- ter their second bout in the recent May 9 elections.

Abayon wants a recount in the first district where Liberal Party stalwart Daza won.

It was a political turnaround for the two veteran legislators as it was Daza who lodged in the 16th Congress (20132016) an electoral protest against Abayon, who was then the victor. Daza won in the HRET but was not affirmed by the Supreme Court.