Comelec yet to receive letter from House on ACT-CIS Yap's resignation

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Thursday said it is awaiting for a formal letter from the House of Representatives regarding the resignation of ACT-CIS party-list Representative Edvic Yap.

Poll chief George Erwin Garcia said the declaration letter would allow the Comelec to officially certify the party-list nominee who will replace Yap.

"Ang ating pakiusap upang ang Comelec ay makakilos agad at makapag-certify, sana po padala na kaagad sa atin na sulat man lang," Garcia said.

(We are calling for the transmitting of the letter so we can work and certify the replacing nominee.)

"Usually ang nangyayari nauuna yung sulat sa amin bago ang official declaration ng resignation sa Mababang Kapulungan. Ngayon po mukhang nauna ang declaration, wala pa kaming natanggap na sulat as of today," he said.

(The HOR usually receives the letter before the official declaration of the letter. However, this time the declaration came before the letter submitted to us. As of today, we have yet to receive that.)

Yap, one of the lawmakers implicated in the flood control scandal, has resigned from his post as a member of the House of Representatives.

He informed the House plenary of his resignation through written communication to his colleagues, which was read during the House's plenary session on Wednesday.

The ACT-CIS party-list secured two seats in the 20th Congress, obtaining 1,239,930 votes in the May midterm polls. Currently, Rep. Jocelyn Tulfo represents the party-list in the HOR with Yap.

Under Section 16 of the Party-list System Act, the vacancy in seats reserved for party-list representatives "shall be automatically filled by the next representative from the list of nominees in the order submitted to the COMELEC by the same party, organization, or coalition, who shall serve for the unexpired term. If the list is exhausted, the party, organization, or coalition concerned shall submit additional nominees."

The list of nominees of ACT-CIS submitted to the Comelec named Jeffrey Soriano as their third nominee. —VAL, GMA Integrated News