Harry Roque asks Comelec to overturn his expulsion from party-list

Embattled lawmaker Harry Roque on Wedmesday asked the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to overturn the decision of Kabayan party-list expelling him and removing him as its representative in the House of Representatives.

He also called on the poll body to order the party-list to hold a congress that would elect a new set of leaders.

Roque filed the petition a day after the party announced his expulsion amid complaints on his behavior and statements, which the group said were made “without the prior approval” of the Kabayan board of trustees.

It specifically pointed to Roque’s “irrelevant, vulgar, and sexist questions” during a hearing of the House Committee on Justice in November last year.

Roque was one of the lawmakers that asked Ronnie Dayan questions as regards his relationship with former Justice Secretary and now Senator Leila De Lima.

Dayan, De Lima's former driver-bodyguard, was also alleged to be a former boyfriend of the senator.

He allegedly collected money from drug lords inside the New Bilibid Prison for De Lima, a claim the senator has repeatedly denied.

In his petition, Roque accused Kabayan party-list Rep. Ron Salo, Joshua Sebastian, and other personalities of usurping the authority of the party officers.

The neophyte lawmaker noted that in the official statement released to the media, Salo and Sebastian referred to a Board of Trustees of the Kabayan party-list comprised of 12 members, which reportedy adopted Resolution No. 2017-01 that mandated Roque's removal from the party.

“It should be noted that there is no such Board of Trustees in the Kabayan party-list as the constitution and by-laws would confirm,” Roque said. 

Roque alleged that on several occasions, Salo misrepresented himself as Kabayan chairman while Sebastian claimed to be the party secretary general.

The former law professor noted Salo and Sebastian had never been elected to such positions based on party records.

"Respondent Sebastian however does not have any power to discipline any member of the party-list including the petitioner (Roque). Respondent Sebastian is therefore usurping the authority of the duly elected Secretary General, and that of the disciplining authority under the constitution and by-laws of the party-list,” he said.

Roque said his "illegal ouster" and other acts "committed and orchestrated" by Salo and his cohorts was not only violative of the constitution and by laws of the party-list, but also of his parliamentary immunity.

“The null and void Resolution No. 2017-001 which centers on the issue of petitioner's (Roque) membership is an attempt to thwart the call for the convening of a party congress to elect the new set of leaders,” the petition stated.

For the meantime, Roque urged the Comelec to issue either a temporary restraining order or writ of preliminary injunction against the resolution so he could continue to function as Kabayan congressman.

"The implementation of the resolution of the non-existent Board of Trustees on the membership of petitioner (Roque) will surely bring and work injustice and grave and irreparable injury to petitioner, who is not an ordinary member of the party-list but also a sitting member of the House of Representatives who has parliamentary immunity," the petition said.

He also asked the Comelec to stop Salo and Sebastian and their cohorts from representing themselves as members of the Kabayan executive committee and from exercising the "powers, prerogatives and privileges attendant to the respective offices that they had been usurping.". —NB/BAP, GMA News