Comelec: Phillip Salvador a Marilao voter

MARILAO, Bulacan—Actor Phillip Salvador is still a voter of this town though he and his wife may just be staying in a house they have been renting from a resident, the local Commission on Elections (Comelec) office said.

In a resolution, Deogracias Danao, municipal election officer and chair of the election registration board here, dismissed the petition filed by six residents who contended that Salvador cannot vote in Marilao because he did not own properties there.

The Inquirer learned that Salvador was planning to run for vice governor in the ticket of former Gov. Josefina de la Cruz, who is reportedly preparing to substitute as a gubernatorial candidate for her brother, Pedro Mendoza.

The actor had earlier told the Comelec that he and his wife were renting the house owned by one Ricardo Maximo Silvestre in Barangay Sta. Rosa 2.

He cited a Supreme Court ruling which asserts that “ownership of a property is not a qualification before a person can run for public office, [or] in this case before a person can register as a voter,” according to Comelec records.

In affirming the validity of the couple’s voter registration, Danao said Salvador was a deactivated voter from Mandaluyong City, so he is qualified as a new voter registrant when the couple decided to reactivate their voting privileges in Marilao.

The poll official dismissed the petitions of Domingo Lukban, Teodoro Toring, Rogelio Gervas, Perlita Panes, Benigno Villaruel and Cesar Cuenca, who questioned Salvador’s registration on Oct. 9.

The petitioners submitted a certification from the municipal assessor that the couple did not own any Marilao property, as well as a certification from the homeowners’ association in Estrella Homes Subdivision in Sta. Rosa village that

Salvador was not a homeowner or resident there.

Salvador’s lawyers countered with testimonies from his neighbors who said that the actor has been living at the Silvestre-Nieto compound since August 2014.

The Salvador couple “applied as registered voters of Marilao on Oct. 9, which is seven months before the scheduled election on May 9, 2016,” Danao said.

“For the purposes of registration, it is enough for the board that applicants or respondents were able to comply and meet the requirements for registration as shown by the identification of a registered voter in the precinct where the applicants or respondents intend to transfer or register and the certificate of residency issued by no less than the punong barangay of Sta. Rosa 2,” he said. Carmela Reyes-Estrope, Inquirer Central Luzon