SC urged to order Speaker to allow oath taking of P3PWD party-list nominee

The Komunidad ng Pamilya, Pasyente, at Persons with Disabilities (P3PWD) Party-list on Monday asked the Supreme Court to order Speaker Martin Romualdez to allow its first nominee, Maria Camille Ilagan, to take oath as a member of the House of Representatives.

In its petition for mandamus with urgent application for the issuance of a writ of preliminary mandatory injunction, the P3PWD party-list said the inclusion of Ilagan as a House member is in order as the Supreme Court already issued a ruling in November 2024 directing the party-list to submit additional nominees, provided that it will not renominate those whose substitutions were declared null and void, including former Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Rowena Guanzon.

The party-list said it submitted a new set of nominees on December 3, 2024, which the Comelec approved in a resolution dated the same day. 

On December 9, 2024, Ilagan appeared before the Office of the House Secretary-General and submitted the documents, including her Certificate of Proclamation dated December 3, 2024, Oath of Office, and a certification from Comelec Secretary.

"Despite the completeness of her submissions, no oath-taking occurred before respondent Honorable Romualdez, the Speaker of the House of Representatives,” the petition read.

“Despite the final and executory ruling of this Honorable Court in the Subject Decision affirming petitioner P3PWD’s electoral mandate and entitlement to a seat in the House of Representatives, neither the Office of the Secretary-General nor respondent Honorable Romualdez has taken any step to set petitioner Ilagan’s oath-taking as the duly elected Representative of petitioner P3PWD in the 19th Congress," it added.

The party-list said the continued inaction "unilaterally thwarts the democratic will of the 391,174 voters who decisively chose petitioner P3PWD in the May 2022 National and Local Elections.”

It further said Ilagan instead took her oath before Judge Katherine Go of the Regional Trial Court of Pasig City, Branch 152.

“Petitioner Ilagan made multiple attempts to carry out her intention to have her ceremonial oath be administered by respondent Honorable Romualdez to no avail. More critically, it constitutes a flagrant neglect of respondent Honorable Romualdez’s ministerial duty as Speaker of the House of Representatives to administer the ceremonial oath of a lawfully proclaimed party-list Representative, thereby preventing petitioner Ilagan from fully assuming the seat petitioner P3PWD rightfully won, in direct contravention of this Honorable Court’s final and executory decision in the Subject Decision and the will of the electorate," the petition said.

“In the instant case, the continued refusal to schedule and administer the oath-taking of petitioner Ilagan by respondent Honorable Romualdez inevitably causes damage or injury to the petitioners,” the petition added.

Further, P3PWD party-list cited that the Rules of the House of Representatives expressly provides that the oath of office administered by Romualdez as Speaker "enables [petitioner Ilagan] to enter into the performance of [her] functions and participate in the deliberations and other proceedings of [respondent] House of Representatives.

“Thus, the respondents’ continued and unjust refusal to administer petitioner Ilagan’s oath, deprives her of her right to enter into the performance of her functions. Consequently, petitioner P3PWD is also deprived of his right to a seat and to be represented in the House of Representatives,” the petition added.

GMA News Online sought comments from the office of Romualdez and will publish it as soon as it becomes available. —Llanesca Panti/AOL/RSJ, GMA Integrated News