In a 26-page Resolution on SPA 15-003 (DC) signed by Commissioners Christian Robert Lim, Luie Tito Guia and Ma. Rowena Ameila Guanzon, the Comelec denied the Petition to Deny Due Course and/or to Cancel Certificate of Candidacy filed by Philip Piccio against Vergara last Oct. 19 “for lack of authority to resolve and for lack of merit.”
The decision was promulgated June 7, 2016 but which copy was received by some parties June 13.
Piccio, who hosts a program on a local television, is a known supporter of incumbent Gov. Aurelio Umali who lost to Vergara in the congressional posts.
Vergara was proclaimed winner in the May elections having garnered 133,256 votes as against Umali’s 130,677 votes and third candidate, Gaudencio Castor’s 804 votes.
In his petition, Piccio alleged that Vergara lacks the residence, citizenship, and voter’s registration requirements under the Constitution to run for the position. He claimed that Vergara’s renunciation of American citizenship “did not have the effect of conferring upon the latter (Vergara) her original natural born status, thus rendering her a stateless person.”
In assailing Vergara’s residency, Piccio alleged she abandoned her domicile in the Philippines when she became an American citizen which can be traced, he said, as early as year 2002. He added her voter’s registration was defective as “she was American citizen at the time of her registration.”
Comelec records showed Vergara submitted an answer on Dec. 23, 2015 where she maintained that she is eligible and qualified for the post as supported by jurisdictions and evidences that her citizenship, residence and voter’s registration, that “she is qualified to run for and be voted as Member of the House of Representatives, Third District of Nueva Ecija.”
Vergara, Comelec record showed, is a registered voter here.
In its ruling the Comelec noted first the jurisdictional issue based on the Supreme Court decision in the case of Sen. Grace Poe-Llamanzares against Commission on Elections. The Commission’s authority to actually and fully resolve petitions filed under Section 78 of the Omnibus Election Code is currently uncertain, the division noted.
The Commission (First Division) takes note that the Supreme Court was clear in Poe-Llamanzares that the Commission, in division or en banc, has no jurisdiction over the question of the qualifications of the candidates for President, Vice President, Senator and Member of the House of Representatives,” it said.
But the division said it still has to dismiss the case because “the respondent did not falsely represent her citizenship, residency, and voter registration status in her COC (certificate of candidacy).
“The Commission (First Division) finds that the respondent (Vergara) did not commit material representation when she declared in her certificate of candidacy that she is eligible for the subject post,” the ruling reads.
Vergara, it added. fully complied with all the requirements set forth in Republic Act 9225 which requires persons seeking elective office who have lost their citizenship 1) to take an oath of allegiance and 2) to additionally execute a personal renunciation of any and all foreign citizenship before an authorized public officer authorized to administer an oath.
