Laguna congressman Fernandez ejected from House

Former actor Dan Fernandez will soon be stripped of his seat as representative of Laguna's first district in the House of Representatives, Speaker Prospero Nograles said. Nograles said House Majority Leader Arthur Defensor would implement next week the decision of the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal to unseat Fernandez for failing to meet the one-year residency requirement. The HRET voted 7-2 against Fernandez. House secretary-general Marilyn Yap said they received a copy of the order of execution last September 23. Baguio City Rep. Mauricio Domogan, chairman of the House contingent in the HRET, had asked Nograles to enforce the December 2008 ruling declaring Fernandez “ineligible" to represent Laguna's first district because he failed to meet the residency requirement. The petition to disqualify Fernandez was filed by private citizen Jesus Vicente, who questioned why the respondent was proclaimed congressman when the residences he filed in the past elections were in Pagsanjan and Cabuyao towns, which are both outside the said district. But Fernandez maintained that the HRET decision could not yet be enforced because it had been questioned before the High Court. “I hope that I’ll be given the chance to prove the legitimacy of my residence in the first district of Laguna," he said. Fernandez won by 35,000 votes over his closest rival, Neric Joaquin, son of former Rep. Uliran Joaquin, in the May 2007 elections. He was a former board member and vice governor of Laguna under the province’s second district but later ran for Congress in the first district. - GMANews.TV