Congress bet removed as voter in Cabanatuan

CABANATUAN CITY—A Nueva Ecija congressional candidate was removed from the list of voters here after a judge found her to have failed to possess the qualification of Filipino citizenship.

The ruling of Executive Judge Kelly Belino of the Municipal Trial Court here made Rossana Vergara, wife of Cabanatuan Mayor Julius Cesar Vergara, ineligible to vote in the May 9 elections.

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

Belino’s decision addressed a petition for exclusion filed on Jan. 28 by Philip Piccio, who claimed that Vergara’s voting rights were nullified because she became a naturalized US citizen in 1998.

But Vergara’s counsel, Gregorio Larrazabal, said the decision was wrong. He said his client is “still a voter and a candidate” because only the Commission on Elections (Comelec) can revoke a voter’s registration and cancel a candidacy.

Larrazabal, a former Comelec commissioner, said going to the court was the wrong process for a “remedy of exclusion.” He said Piccio’s petition should have been transmitted to the Election Registration Board (ERB).

Piccio has another petition pending in Comelec which seeks to cancel Vergara’s certificate of candidacy (COC).

Court records showed Vergara registered as a voter in Barangay Bantug Norte on June 21, 1997. On May 20, 1998, she was issued an American passport.

On Dec. 27, 2000, Vergara applied for a transfer of registration records due to a change of residence. On Dec. 7, 2003, she underwent biometrics registration and was assigned a new voter’s registration number.

In November 2006, she took her oath of allegiance to the Republic of the Philippines and was granted her identification certificate by the Bureau of Immigration.

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

Vergara told the court that her becoming a naturalized US citizen in 1998 did not strip her of

her status as a registered voter of Cabanatuan because, she said, her registration had not been revoked by the ERB.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of her Filipino citizenship had restored her civil and political rights, including her right to vote because it had not been revoked.

The court, however, ruled against Vergara. Belino, in a Feb. 4 decision, said Vergara “failed to possess the qualification of Filipino citizenship” when she registered as a voter on Dec. 7, 2003.

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