TUCP Partylist Rep. Mendoza dares Herrera to replace him

By TUCP
July 1, 2014

QUEZON CITY – Trade Union Congress Party (TUCP) Party-list Rep. Raymond Mendoza dared former Senator Ernesto Herrera to file the necessary complaint at the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET) if he thinks he can replace the congressman.

Meanwhile, Mendoza announced he will officially begin his being member of the powerful Commission on Appointments (CA) membership today.

“I am fully prepared to work even harder as I begin my other important role as member of the Commission on Appointments. I am ready to take to a higher level the promotion of the workers’ legislative agenda in congress. I am happy that all of my labor policy proposals are being intelligently vetted by various committees including the proposal to strengthen the security of tenure which has been eroded to the massive contractualization promoted by so-called labor leaders,” Mendoza said.

“With regards to Mr. Herrera’s claim that he will replace me as TUCP party-list representative, I encourage him to attempt it. He has been a senator and he has been a congressman before so he knows well that jurisdiction for such a move lies with the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET). Good luck to him,” Mendoza added.

Herrera issued a press statement the other day saying he is going to replace Mendoza as TUCP Party-list congressman following a Court of Appeals (CA) decision last week affirming its earlier decision putting him as holdover president of the labor center Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) and ordering the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to conduct an election as soon as possible for members to determine rightful leaders of the biggest labor center in the country.

In July 2012, the DOLE ruled in favour of Atty. Democrito “Kito” Mendoza as president of TUCP. However, Herrera brought the case to the CA.

TUCP spokesperson Alan Tanjusay, on the other hand, clarified that the CA ruling pertains only to the TUCP as labor center and it has no bearing on the TUCP party-list as a duly registered political party. The party-list is separate and distinct from the TUCP labor center.

Both have separate board structure with the party-list registered with COMELEC and not the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).