NE 3rd District Rep. Rosanna Vergara
CABANATUAN CITY – The Supreme Court en banc upheld the ruling of the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal that affirmed the proclamation of Rep. Rosanna Vergara as “duly-elected Member of the House of Representatives representing the Third District of Nueva Ecija in the May 2016 National and Local Election.”
Released by the SC public information office on Wednesday, the decision penned by Justice Alfredo Benjamin S. Caguioa and concurred by six other magistrates, dismissed for lack of merit the quo warranto petition which assailed the proclamation of Vergara in the May 2016 elections.
Voting 7-5, the SC ruled “the HRET did not commit grave abuse of discretion in rendering the assailed issuances.”
The petition for certiorari was filed was filed by Philip Hernandez Piccio assailing the May 23, 2019 Decision and June 27, 2019 Resolution of the HRET.
The HRET’s May 23, 2019 Decision dismissed for lack of merit Piccio’s petition for quo warranto and that of petitioner-intervenor Aurelio Matias Umali against Vergara and affirmed the latter’s proclamation as duly-elected representative. The June 27, 2019 Resolution denied Piccio’s motion for reconsideration.
In his petition Piccio alleged that Vergara was ineligible to sit as a member of the House as she allegedly remained an American citizen.
Court record showed Vergara was born to Filipino parents on Nov. 5, 1963 in the City of Manila. In 1994, she moved to Cabanatuan City where she married and later established a family home. In 1998, she moved to the United States of America, obtained a certificate of naturalization as an American citizen, and was thereby issued an American passport.
In 2006, Vergara filed with the Philippine Bureau of Immigration a petition for the Issuance of an identification certificate pursuant to RA 9225, or the Citizenship Retention and Re-acquisition Act of 2003, for the retention/reacquisition of Philippine citizenship. She also took her Oath of Allegiance to the Republic of the Philippines as part of the documentary requirements supporting her RA 9225 petition.
On Nov. 30, 2006, she was issued IC No. 06-12955 having re-acquired her Philippine citizenship. She subsequently executed an Affidavit of Renunciation of Foreign Citizenship dated Sept. 4, 2015.
Piccio’s petition challenged the finding of the HRET on Vergara’s compliance with the requirements of RA 9225, alleging that the HRET gravely abused its discretion when it declared that Vergara had duly re-acquired her Philippine citizenship, despite the fact that both Vergara and the BI only had photocopies of her RA 9225 documents.
But the SC held: “In sum, there is overwhelming competent evidence proving Vergara’s compliance with R.A. 9225 for the re-acquisition of her Philippine citizenship.”
The Court held that the evidence on record shows that Vergara duly re-acquired her Philippine Citizenship pursuant to RA 9225.
The justices who concurred with the decision penned by Justice Caguioa were Chief Justice Alexander G. Gesmundo, and Justices Amy C. Lazaro–Javier, Henri Jean Paul B. Inting, Rodil V. Zalameda, Ricardo R. Rosario, and Jhosep Y. Lopez.
Dissenting were Justices Ramon Paul L. Hernando, Rosmari D. Carandang, Mario V. Lopez, Samuel H. Gaerlan, and Japar B. Dimaampao.
Senior Associate Justice Estela M. Perlas–Bernabe and Marvic M.V.F. Leonen took no part in the decision.
