Sunday, May 27, 2007 Limkaichong is Chinese, not Filipino By Edmund Sestoso
THREE days after the election on May 14, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) disqualified congressional candidate Jocelyn Limkaichong based on her citizenship.
Limkaichong, who is the incumbent mayor of La Libertad town, ran in the first congressional district of Negros Oriental and was leading against candidates Jerome Paras and Olive Paras.
In its ruling issued last May 17, the Second Division of the Comelec said Limkaichong is a Chinese citizen and is therefore disqualified from running for Congress.
The Constitution requires that candidates for Congress should be natural-born Filipino citizens.
The 13-page resolution was signed by Comelec Presiding Commissioner Florentino Tuason Jr. and Commissioners Rene Sarmiento and Nicodemo Ferrer.
The resolution was an offshoot of the disqualification petitions filed separately by former La Libertad mayor Napoleon Camero and Renald Vilando, also a resident of the town.
The resolution also ordered the Negros Oriental Provincial Board of Canvassers to strike out the name of Limkaichong in the name of the registered list of candidates, thereby making all the votes in her favor as stray votes.
It also ordered to stop/hold or suspend the proclamation of Limkaichong until the decision becomes final.
The Comelec, in its decision, stated that Limkaichong was born a Chinese national because both her parents were Chinese nationals and did not complete the naturalization proceedings for them to become Filipinos.
“On the substantial issue of whether respondent Jocelyn Sy-Limkaichong is disqualified to run for the congressional seat of the first district of Negros Oriental on the ground that she is not a natural-born Filipino, we hold that she is so disqualified,” the Comelec ruled.
Records show that Branch 11 of the then Court of First Instance granted Chinese businessman Julio Sy’s petition for naturalization on Sept. 21, 1959, and Sy took his oath of allegiance as a naturalized Filipino citizen on Oct. 21, 1959, which is within the 30-day mandatory period to either file an appeal or not on the part of the aggrieved party.
Limkaichong was born on Nov. 9, 1959.
However, records from the Local Civil Registrar and the National Statistics Office show that Limkaichong had two different birth certificates--something that, to her opponents, cast doubt on the authenticity of the documents.
The Comelec also pointed out that “it could be seen that Julio Ong Sy did not acquire Filipino citizenship through the naturalization proceedings in Special Order 1043. Thus, he was only able to transmit to his offspring his Chinese citizenship”.
“Respondent Jocelyn Sy-Limkaichong, being the daughter of Julio Ong Sy, and having been born on Nov. 9, 1959, under the 1935 Philippine Constitution, is a Chinese national and is disqualified to run as first district representative of Negros Oriental,” Comelec further stated.
