THE Supreme Court (SC) will hear on Tuesday the arguments of the parties in the consolidated petitions questioning the election of Lakas Rep. Jocelyn Limkaichong of Negros Oriental on the ground that she is not a natural-born Filipino citizen.

Lawyers of Limkaichong are expected to assert his Filipino citizenship during the oral arguments scheduled at 1:30 p.m. at the new session hall of the SC.

The oral argument was originally scheduled on Friday but the Court en banc instead moved it to August 26 through a resolution a few weeks ago.

In an advisory issued to the parties, the Court said the issues to be taken up will be whether the proclamation of Limkaichong by the provincial board of canvassers of Negros Oriental is valid and whether the said proclamation divested the Commission on Elections (Comelec) of jurisdiction to resolve the issue of Limkaichong’s citizenship.

Likewise, the parties are tasked to discuss the issue on whether the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET) should assume jurisdiction, in lieu of the Comelec, and whether the poll body correctly ruled that Limkaichong is disqualified from running for congressman.

The SC also asked the parties to take up the issue of whether the Comelec’s initial disqualification of Limkaichong is final and executory, and whether the speaker of the House of Representatives may be compelled to prohibit Limkaichong from assuming her duties as a member of the Lower House.

Lawyer Pacifico Agabin, former dean of the University of the Philippines College of Law, will act as Limkaichong’s lead counsel.

The Commission on Elections’ Second Division, in a resolution issued on May 17, 2007, held that Limkaichong should be disqualified from seeking a congressional seat on the ground that she is not a natural-born Filipino citizen.

Limkaichong’s father, according to her detractors, failed to acquire Filipino citizenship through naturalization proceedings before a court. 

However, she insisted that the said Comelec resolution was issued with grave abuse of discretion. She argued that the petitions for disqualification against her are “deemed dismissed” in line with the Comelec en banc’s resolution issued on August 16, 2007, where all the six commissioners unanimously ruled that it no longer has jurisdiction over the petitions for disqualification against Limkaichong since she was already proclaimed on May 25, 2007, and that all issues pertaining to her proclamation is now vested with the HRET.

Under the Constitution, election cases which are no longer “pre-proclamation” suits must be handled by the HRET in recognition of the legislature’s innate right to determine the fitness of its members.

Article VI, Section 17 of the 1987 Constitution provides that the Senate and the House of Representatives shall each have an electoral tribunal which shall be the sole judge of all contests relating to the election, returns and disqualifications of their respective members.

Limkaichong maintained that she is a natural-born Filipino citizen since at the time of her birth on November 9, 1959, her father Julio Sy was already a naturalized Filipino citizen.

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