Friday, July 21, 2006
Seares: (Gabby’s) house is not a home
By Pachico A. Seares
News Sense
Could you imagine Cebu City Councilor Gabby Leyson---multimillionaire, heir to vast fortune, business magnate with huge landholdings---living in that house in Lagtang, Talisay City?
Probably not, if you saw the photo and story on Page 10 in yesterday's Sun.Star.
The house is not yet finished but you can see what it will be like.
It is tiny and plain: 30-sq.m. floor area, one story, 400-sq.m. lot, small door, two small windows, and the living room, bedroom, and kitchen cramped into one space.
Compared in size and value to a mansion in Cebu City, the Lagtang house can be outhouse, servants quarters, or storage dump.
Can he stay, eat, and sleep in Lagtang?
Politicians are good at slumming. Besides, Gabby, also a man of the mountains, belongs to a breed not likely to catch a mean virus from the poor.
But is the Lagtang house his home now? Not yet, not until he starts living in it and convincing Talisaynons, not just Comelec, that it is his home too.
Irrelevant
It is legally irrelevant though.
Even if he doesn't make the Lagtang house his home, he already qualifies as legal resident of Talisay.
Legal residence as requirement for voting and be voted upon is only intent: intent to stay and intent to return.
Of course, persuading Talisay voters is something else.
Gabby might find it tough to seek their vote if his real home lies elsewhere.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (July 21, 2006 issue)
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