MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) yesterday denied a petition to disqualify Alan Peter Cayetano, who is running for congressman of the first district of Taguig City.
In an 18-page decision, the Comelec’s Second Division ruled that the petition of Leonedes Buac against Cayetano should not be given weight.
The poll body said Buac had failed to prove that Cayetano committed any “material misrepresentation” concerning the residency that he declared in his certificate of candidacy.
The poll body also ruled that the civil and election laws were never meant to be reconciled, on why Cayetano does not have the same declared residence as his wife, Taguig Mayor Lani Cayetano, as provided by the Family Code.
“Based on the foregoing, there should be no confusion to begin with as to the Civil Code pertains to residence as mere actual residence and not domicile as it is understood in election law and as used to determine residency for qualification purposes... the Supreme Court recognizes that domicile is not lost by the establishment of matrimonial domicile elsewhere,” the decision added.
The Second Division said residence is different from one’s domicile and a person may maintain several residences and not lose his or her domicile in the process.
“Here, it is clear that his residence or domicile is still 209 Paso street, Barangay Bagumbayan, Taguig City despite the transfer of their family home to 353-A Two Serendra, Barangay Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City. His domicile remains to be that in Barangay Bagumbayan, which has been his domicile from 1991 up to the present,” it said.
Buac’s legal counsel Emil Marañon III said the dismissal of the case was made despite “very strong evidence.”
Marañon added that since the consolidated case filed against Lani remains undecided, this “gives us a faint glimmer of hope.”
Lani is seeking to represent Taguig’s District 2 in the House of Representatives and declared she is a resident of Barangay Fort Bonifacio.
“We will be filing our motion for reconsideration as soon as we officially receive the copy of the decision. We will fight until the end,” Marañon said.