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Saturday, November 17, 2007
Ronda mayor declared ‘ineligible’ to hold office
CEBU CITY -- For failing to meet the residency requirements, Ronda, Cebu Mayor Esteban Sia was declared by the court as “ineligible” to run for office and hold the elective position.
But until the decision becomes final and executory, Cebu’s richest politician will remain town mayor.
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Sia, who ran under the Lakas party, won against One Cebu party’s Victoria Blanco, wife of Ronda Vice Mayor Mariano Blanco III.
The mayor recently made headlines when two of his bodyguards were ambushed last November 1, just a short distance from Sia’s house. Orlando Ugario, 52, was killed, while his companion Lito Berdijo was injured.
Sia said he will file an appeal on Barili Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Leopoldo Cañete’s decision.
In his 16-page decision, Cañete said that as argued by petitioner Jonald Ungab, Sia acquired Philippine citizenship only last January 22, 2007, or barely four months before the May 14 elections.
Section 9 of Republic Act (RA) 8189 states that “a residency in the Philippines for at least one year and in the place where he intends to vote for at least six months is a requirement for one to be validly registered as a voter.”
The section is a reiteration of Section 117 of the Omnibus Election Code.
The court ruled that Sia lost his domicile origin when he became an American citizen after enlisting in the US Navy in 1965.
“From then on until January 22, 2007, when he reacquired his Philippine citizenship pursuant to RA 9225, or (the) The Citizen Retention and Re-acquisition Act of 2003, he was an alien without any right to stay in the Philippines except as visitor or as a resident,” read the decision.
The court also said that prior to January 22, Sia was still an alien.
He, therefore, could still be a US citizen, as his sworn renunciation that waived his status as a permanent US resident did not show that American authorities properly filed or acted on it.
The court also voided Sia’s election registration because “what was registered, therefore, as a voter is an alien, a highly anomalous and censurable situation which should and must not be tolerated ever.”
In his petition, Ungab alleged that although born in Ronda, Sia had moved to the US and acquired American citizenship.
Sia, he said, failed to meet the residency requirement of at least one year immediately preceding the 2007 elections.
Ungab said that October 13, 2006, Sia filed an application for registration as a voter before the Election Registration Board, where he marked his citizenship as “dual Fil.”
Sia, he added, did not specify his period of residence in the municipality and in the country. The application was approved.
Sia, though, argued before the court that with the passage of RA 9225, his domicile origin was deemed not lost or abandoned the moment he reacquired his Philippine citizenship last January.
“The…law declares that the respondent is deemed not to have lost his Filipino citizenship and (is) restored to his full civil and political rights. Logic dictates that the respondent had similarly not lost his legal residence, which is synonymous to the concept of domicile for purposes of election,” he said.
But the court thought otherwise.
Cañete said that RA 9225 deals on two situations—first, on natural-born citizens who lost their Philippine citizenship by reason of naturalization before the law’s effectivity; second, on natural-born citizens who, after the law took effect, became citizens of a foreign country.
He said there is a distinction between the two situations.
In the first, citizens are deemed to have reacquired Philippine citizenship upon taking the required oath. In the second, they are allowed to retain their Philippine citizenship.
“The term reacquire and retain indisputably speaks for themselves. While reacquire recognizes that an item has been lost before possession is retained, retain connotes continuity of possession,” said Cañete.
Sia said he was born in Ronda and finished schooling here in Cebu.
Before he went abroad at age 30, he was a registered voter of the southwestern town. Last May 2006, he returned to the country with his wife.
In January this year, he took his oath of allegiance at the Philippine Consulate General office in Los Angeles, California, pursuant to RA 9225 and Administrative Order No. 91.
Last March, he returned to Ronda and executed a sworn renunciation waiving his status as a US citizen since he wanted to run for public office.
Although he then attended to his sick daughter in the US, he returned to Ronda and stayed in Barili town starting April.
Sia challenged the legality of Ungab’s petition, saying he should have filed it within 25 days from March 26, 2007, the day he filed his certificate of candidacy.
But the court ruled that the contention holds no water.
And while it could be argued that majority of Ronda residents wanted Sia by voting him mayor, the Supreme Court (SC) ruled that the will of the majority could not replace what is required by law.
In the case of Aquino vs. Comelec, the SC said that “not even the will of a majority or plurality of the voters…would substitute for a requirement mandated by the fundamental law itself,” Cañete quoted the ruling. (KNT of Sun.Star Cebu)For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Zamboanga. (November 17, 2007 issue)
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