Magsasaka party-list nominee Robert Nazal, Jr. has taken his oath as a member of the House of Representatives on October 10.
Nazal’s office made the announcement Wednesday, saying the new House member took his oath of office before Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 220 Judge Jose Paneda on the same day the Commission on Elections (Comelec) issued a certificate of proclamation recognizing him as the qualified nominee of Magsasaka party-list.
A former member of the Magsasaka party-list on Wednesday meanwhile hit the Comelec for its decision to recognize a “millionaire” and Pasahero party-list founder as the legitimate nominee of the farmers and fisher folk group.
At a media briefing in Quezon City, ex-representative Argel Joseph Cabatbat, took a swipe at the five en banc commissioners who declared Nazal as the first nominee of the Magsasaka party-list that got a one-seat vote at the House of Representatives.
He believes Comelec’s decision in favor of Nazal was “anomalous.” “We will consult our members, the farmers and the fisher folks on what steps to take. While impeachment is a possibility, as a lawyer, I will not file a case if I am mad. We have to build up a case first,” he said.
Cabatbat said Comelec “circumvented the law on party-list system.” He also claimed that Nazal was never a bona fide member or nominee of the Magsasaka party-list, and that he was publicly campaigning under the Pasahero party-list in the May 9 polls.
After taking his oath, Nazal, an agriculture entrepreneur, paid a courtesy call to Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez at the Batasang Pambansa. He also met with House Majority Leader Manuel Jose Dalipe and Senior Deputy Majority Leader Ferdinand Alexander Marcos.
Last May 26, the Comelec proclaimed Magsasaka as one of the 55 winning party-list groups in the May 9, 2022 elections. Magsasaka had obtained 272,737 votes, entitling it to one House seat in the 19th Congress.
It took more than four months before Nazal could finally assume office as the Comelec had to resolve the internal dispute between Magsasaka national chair Soliman Villamin Jr. and the faction led by lawyer Argel Joseph Cabatbat, the group’s former representative to Congress.
The Comelec recently issued a Certificate of Finality and Entry of Judgment in which the poll body declared as “final and executory” its ruling in favor of Villamin Jr.
It will be recalled that last Sept. 9, the Comelec en banc upheld the Nov. 25, 2021 resolution of the first division junking the petitions to deny due course to the Manifestation of Intent to Participate (MIP) in the May 2022 elections submitted by Villamin Jr.
The poll body said the records show that until October 10, “no restraining order has been issued by the Supreme Court in relation to the Resolution within 30 days from the receipt of the parties thereof.”
Comelec records show that Nazal was originally Magsasaka’s third nominee, after King Cortez and Villamin Jr.
However, Cortez and Villamin Jr. eventually resigned and withdrew as first and second nominees, respectively, paving the way for Nazal to take over as first nominee, which has been duly approved by the Comelec en banc in a resolution dated Sept. 9, 2022. Rio N. Araja