Disqualified bet proclaimed winner

MANILA, Philippines - Disqualified congressional candidate Regina Reyes has been proclaimed winner in the lone district of Marinduque.

“She has already been proclaimed. She won by more than 5,000 votes,” her brother, Edmund Reyes, who heads the Toll Regulatory Board, told The STAR yesterday.

He said the first division of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) disqualified his sister but that she appealed the decision to the full Comelec bench.

“As far as I know, the appeal is still pending,” he said.

His sister defeated reelectionist Rep. Rep. Lord Allan Jay Velasco, son of Supreme Court Justice Presbitero Velasco. She was officially proclaimed the winner last Thursday.

In the partial unofficial results reflected in the Comelec website, Reyes was ahead of Velasco by more than 3,000 votes.

She received 41,072 votes against the incumbent congressman’s 38,111.

Reyes was disqualified for reportedly holding dual citizenship – American and Filipino.

In a privilege speech before Congress adjourned for the election campaign in February, Reyes’ husband, Batangas Rep. Hermilando Mandanas, admitted his wife is a dual citizen.

However, he said Reyes gave up her American citizenship before she filed her certificate of candidacy, as the law on dual citizenship requires.

Comelec commissioners had voted 5-1 to affirm with finality the ruling of its first division last March 27 canceling Reyes’ certificate of candidacy for failure to renounce her American citizenship as required of candidates with dual citizenship.

In a four-page resolution obtained by The STAR, Comelec stood by its earlier findings that Reyes is not qualified to run since she has not made a renunciation of her American citizenship and had continued to use her American passport up to June last year.

“Unless and until she can establish that she had availed of the privileges of RA 9225 by becoming a dual Filipino-American citizen, and thereafter, made a valid sworn renunciation of her American citizenship, she remains to be an American citizen and is, therefore, ineligible to run for and hold any elective public office in the Philippines,” read the ruling.

Only Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. dissented from this ruling, but did not submit a dissenting opinion to explain his vote.

Apart from Commissioner Luie Guia who inhibited from the case, all the other commissioners voted to disqualify Reyes.

Comelec dismissed her arguments as rehash of her previous claims, stressing that Reyes failed to comply with the requirements set forth by Republic Act 9225 with regard to reacquisition of her Filipino citizenship.

Comelec emphasized Reyes failed to prove that she is a resident of Marinduque one year before the elections.