BOXING promoter Rex “Wakee” Salud is not qualified to vote and run for a government post in Cordova town, Mactan Island, Cebu.
The court recently affirmed the decision of the Election Registration Board of Cordova which disapproved Salud’s application to be a registered voter of the municipality for failure to prove he’s a resident.
“The constitution clearly provides one’s right to suffrage. This is petitioner’s (Salud) right. Where he wants to vote and be registered is also his inherent right as a citizen of this country. However, he must also comply for its qualification,” said Judge Jocelyn Uy-Po of the Municipal Circuit Trial Court of Consolacion and Cordova.
The judge said Salud, who plans to run for mayor in Cordova, failed to prove he has been a resident of the municipality for six months before the May 2013 election.
An ocular inspection by the court showed that Salud’s rented house in barangay Cogon, Cordova town “does not possess any single personal effect of petitioner.”
“The bed, had no mattress, was not even sufficient to carry the weight of petitioner. It was a little boy’s room. The outhouse does not even have a proper door,” the judge said.
Salud also couldn’t locate his residence during the inspection.
“It took more than an hour of going nowhere when the counsel of the respondents (Election Registration Board) volunteered to lead the way,” Po said.
Salud, whose statements were recorded, said that “I am undecided yet that is why I am not residing here.”
Under a aruling of the Supreme Court, a person may not have a house in the place where he wants to be a registered voter. It is enough that he or she lives in the municipality or in a rental house “provided that his stay is accompanied by his intention to reside there permanently.”
Judge Po said Salud failed to convince the court that he was a Cogon, Cordova resident. /Reporter ADOR VINCENT S. MAYOL