Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 17) — The House of Representatives will choose who will be designated as the caretaker of the third district of Negros Oriental following the expulsion of Arnolfo Teves Jr. as a lawmaker, House Secretary General Reginald Velasco said Thursday.
Velasco said the House leadership is looking at lawmakers from the first and second districts of Negros Oriental, namely— Rep. Jocelyn Limkaichong and Rep. Manuel Sagarbarria—as the legislative caretaker of the third district.
“Usually, the neighboring district of the congressman concerned or congresswoman concerned is the one appointed as caretaker,” he explained.
He added that holding special polls to elect Teves’ replacement in Congress could be difficult considering the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) tight timeline in preparing for the October 2023 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections and the 2025 midterm polls.
Velasco, however, said the House will wait for the Comelec’s word on the necessity of holding special elections in the third district of Negros Oriental.
With 265 affirmative votes and three abstentions, the House on Wednesday voted to expel Teves for disorderly behavior and violating its Code of Conduct.
Teves is facing a number of criminal cases, including over three killings in his province in 2019 and the murder of Negros Oriental Governor Roel Degamo last March.
The Comelec said he can still run for public office while there is no conviction by final judgment yet.
“Removal from office pertains only to the term and not as a perpetual dq (disqualification) to hold public office. The proceedings [are] administrative in nature,” the poll body’s chairman George Garcia told reporters in a message.
According to Velasco, there’s no precedent for the expulsion of a sitting lawmaker who has not yet been convicted.
In 2012, then Dinagat Island Rep. Ruben Ecleo Jr. was removed from the House’s roll of members after he was found guilty of murder. The same thing happened in 2002 to then Zamboanga del Norte Rep. Romeo Jalosjos after the Supreme Court upheld his rape conviction.
The Office of the House Secretary General has sent a letter to Teves’ office formally informing him of his expulsion. Velasco said the former lawmaker can appeal the House’s decision before the Supreme Court.
Since Teves’ staff work on a coterminous basis, Velasco said their employment has also ceased. However, they could be retained by the designated caretaker of his district.
As of Thursday afternoon, Teves’ office at the South Wing of Batasang Pambansa is still occupied by a female employee. Office equipment and furniture have not been removed.
Velasco insisted that Teves’ expulsion didn’t violate any House rules, as the ethics committee already started discussing the former lawmaker’ s supposed violations even before his designation as a terrorist by the Anti-Terrorism Council.
Teves’ lawyer, Ferdinand Topacio, accused the House of violating its own rules since there are pending proceedings against the former lawmaker before the ATC and the Office of the Ombudsman.
“Walang basis ‘yung claim ni Atty. Topacio na these processes have to be completed before the Committee on Ethics and the plenary will decide. Noon pa ito eh,” the House secretary general said.
[Translation: There’s no basis for Atty. Topacio’s claim that these processes have to be completed before the Committee on Ethics and the plenary will decide. The committee’s discussions started long before.]
CNN Philippines’ Kristel Limpot contributed to this report.
