SIXTY-four voters of Barangay Kamagayan are officially excluded from the list of voters of the barangay.
Judge Monalila Tecson of Branch 1 of Metropolitan Trial Court in Cities (MTCC) in Cebu City, in a ruling Wednesday, March 6, granted the exclusion of 64 voters from the 73 voters contested to be delisted from the list of voters of Barangay Kamagayan.
This after they were found to already be living in Mandaue City.
With the development, the court asked Atty. Marchel Sarno, election supervisor of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to remove the 64 from the list of registered voters from their respective precincts in Barangay Kamagayan.
At present, Sarno said Barangay Kamagayan has 2,892 registered voters.
Lawyer Florleane Sacares of SALiGAL Law, who serves as counsel for the petitioners said that the 64 will no longer be allowed to vote in Cebu City.
“Per the decision, Comelec is mandated to exclude them from the voters’ list. They can no longer vote in Cebu City,” she said.
Earlier, three petitioners through separate petitions, have asked the court to remove a total of 173 people from the list of voters registered in Barangay Kamagayan, for allegedly failing to satisfy the domicile requirement.
Separate petition for exclusions were filed before Branch 1 and Branch 2 of MTCC in Cebu City against the 173 people.
At present, Branch 2 has yet to issue a decision on the set of petitions filed before the court.
These 173 voters used to live in Barangay Kamagayan, but they moved to Barangay Cubacub in Mandaue City after their houses were demolished. Cubacub Barangay Captain Almario Bihag provided a certification that the 173 lived in his barangay.
Tecson anchored her decision on several decisions made by the Supreme Court as to the questions of the residency or domicile requirement of a registered voter.
To satisfy the voter requirement, one must establish a domicile in a certain place and not just residency alone.
In her decision, Tecson said that although the right to suffrage is a right expressly granted by the Constitution to every person, the court, however, has an obligation to weed out the voting population and cleanse the electoral process in Barangay Kamagayan from those persons, who have not complied with the domiciliary requirement under the existing laws.
Tecson cited the case of Ong vs. Republic, where the high court took the concept of domicile as an individual's permanent home, or a place to which whenever absent for business or pleasure, one intends to return.
As provided also under the case of Romualdez vs. Comelec, residence, in its ordinary conception, implies factual relationship of an individual to certain place. It is the physical presence of a person in a given area, community or country.
“The essential distinction between residence and domicile in law is that residence involves intent to leave when the purpose for which the resident has taken up his abodes ends. One may seek a place for purpose such as pleasure, business, or health. If a person's intent be to remain, it becomes his domicile,” read case further reads.
Since petition for exclusion, in nature, is a summary proceeding, Tecson also ruled that those who failed to attend the hearing last Feb. 22 were declared default and adjudged excluded from the list of voters.
As provided under Section 32 of Republic Act 8189, if the question under a petition for exclusion involves whether or not a voter is real or fictitious, his non- appearance on the day set for the hearing is prima facie evidence that the challenged voter is fictitious.
Tecson, however, clarified that the court decision is not an absolute prohibition for the 64 people to their right to suffrage but limit only to their right to vote in Barangay Kamagayan.
Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella believes the case is politically motivated, claiming all of them are supporters Barangay Kamagayan Captain Raquel Avila, who is also their ally in Barug PDP-Laban.
Labella, standard bearer of Barug Partido Demokratiko ng Pilipinas-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) in Cebu City, described the move as a political ploy since he would lose votes if the 173 voters will be excluded.
He earlier said it is obvious the three petitioners were ordered by their political opponent, the Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK), to slash his potential votes.