Comelec says Vergara name not removed from voter list

CABANATUAN CITY—The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has not removed the name of a Nueva Ecija congressional candidate from the city’s list of voters as directed on Feb. 4 by a court.

Lawyer Wesley del Fonso, Cabanatuan election officer, said the poll body has not been served a final and executory order from Executive Judge Kelly Belino, of the Municipal Trial Court (MTC) here, who ruled that Rossana Vergara, wife of Cabanatuan Mayor Julius Cesar Vergara, was not eligible to vote in the May 9 elections.

Belino had concluded that Vergara’s voting rights were extinguished when she became a naturalized American citizen in 1998.

Instead, the Comelec city office was furnished a copy of Vergara’s notice of appeal, which she filed at the regional trial court to contest the MTC judgment, Del Fonso said, adding that the election office may not yet amend the voter list.

Vergara is listed as voter at Precinct No. 0078-A in Barangay Rizdelis here. She is running against outgoing Nueva Ecija Gov. Aurelio Umali.

The Inquirer was not provided a copy of Vergara’s appeal. But in an earlier interview, Vergara’s counsel, Gregorio Larrazabal, said the election registration board (ERB) is the proper body tasked with evaluating whether the candidate was eligible to vote. Larrazabal is former Comelec commissioner.

Court records also show Vergara took her oath of allegiance to the Republic of the Philippines in November 2006, and was granted her identification certificate by the Bureau of Immigration.

She also executed an affidavit of renunciation of her foreign citizenship on Sept. 4, 2015.

Vergara told the court that acquiring the status of a naturalized US citizen in 1998 had not invalidated her voting rights because her voter’s registration had not been revoked by the ERB.

She said her application for a transfer of registration was a valid exercise of her right as a registered voter. She also said her reacquisition of her Filipino citizenship had restored her civil and political rights, including her right to vote, because it had not been revoked. Armand Galang, Inquirer Central Luzon