The First Division of the Commission on Elections has cancelled the Certificate of Candidacy of the winning mayor of Sevilla town after the poll body found that she was not eligible to run for public office owing to discrepancy in residency requirement. In a decision promulgated five days before the May 13, 2013, the Comelec first division through Ma. Josefina de la Cruz, clerk of the commission, cancelled the COC of mayoralty candidate Juliet Dano even if she was voted overwhelmingly by the Sevilla electorate. She bested incumbent Mayor Ernisita Digal by a margin of 568 or 3292 votes against 2624. In a nine-page resolution, Presiding Commissioner Lucenito Tagle said, although respondent Dano has reacquired her Filipino citizenship in view of her compliance with the requirements of Republic Act 9225, she nonetheless failed to meet the one year residency requirement set forth by Section 39 of the Local Government Code. Her four- month absence from May 10, 2012 to September 28, 2012 has significantly reduced her length of residence in the Philippines, more particularly in Sevilla, Bohol, well below the one year period required by law. In her petition, Marie Karen Joy Digal y Bungabong, daughter of incumbent mayor, alleged that Dano applied for registration as voter with the Commission field office in Sevilla, Bohol on May 2, 2012 while she was in the Philippines using an American passport. Her Application for Registration, which was approved by the Sevilla Field Office on July 16, 2012, states that she is a Filipino citizen and that she has been living in the municipality of Sevilla, Bohol, for 58 years and five months. In the same petition, it was averred that before approval of respondent’s application, she returned to the United States on May 10, 2012, still using the same American passport.

BONE OF CONTENTION

According to the Comelec, the bone of contention in the instant case was whether respondent made a material representation in her COC that would warrant its cancellation. The poll body cited two grounds to settle the issue of whether to cancel the respondent’s COC or give due course. Citing Section 78 of the Omnibus Election Code, the Comelec said the same provision provides that a verified petition seeking to deny due course or to cancel a certificate of candidacy may be filed by the person exclusively on the ground that any material representation contained therein as required under Section 74 is false. Secondly, the poll body also cited Section 39 of the Local Government Code where it provides that an elective local official must be a citizen of the Philippines; a registered voter in the barangay, municipality, city or province or, in the case of a member of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan, Sangguniang Panglungsud, or Sangguniang Bayan, the district where he intends to be elected; a resident therein for at least one year immediately preceding the day of the election; and able to read and write Filipino or any other language or dialect.

In cancelling the COC of the mayor-elect, the Comelec zeroed in on the contention of the respondent that she registered as a voter after she reacquired her citizenship on May 2, 2012 or about a month from March 30, 2012 adding that it was not enough. According to the presiding commissioner, registering as a voter may indicate the intention to fix a domicile of choice, but, by itself, is not definite enough to evince a person’s intention to abandon its domicile of choice and reacquire the domicile of origin. Such registration may have been done to comply with election requirement. ]The Comelec added: To reckon the one-year residency period from the date of the Oath of Allegiance, respondent must show that immediately thereafter, she has taken positive steps to concretely establish her intention to truly abandon USA as her domicile of choice. But then, records show that after the submission of her Application for Registration on May 2, 2012, respondent made frequent tri[s in the USA and it was only upon her return sometime in September 2012 did she execute her sworn renunciation of allegiance.

MOTION FOR RECIONSIDERATUION

In its motion for reconsideration filed through counsel Handel Lagunay, Dano contended that she only received the Comelec resolution on May 21, 2013. In the same motion, Dano debunked the poll body’s contention that she has not shown acts that she has reestablished her domicile at Sevilla, Bohol, and abandoned her domicile in the US at least one year prior to May 13, 2013. Dano also dismissed the argument of the Comelec that respondent’s absence of four months from Sevilla, Bohol is a cause to declare she failed to meet the residency requirement. Citing the outcome of the May 13 mayoralty contest in Sevilla, Dano said she was overwhelmingly elected by the people of Sevilla, Bohol as their mayor garnering the highest number of 3,292 votes over her nearest rival who garnered only 2,624 votes.