Comelec cancels COC of Arenas
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) Second Division has canceled the Certificated of Candidacy (COC) of Second District congressional candidate Ramon Arenas Jr. for failure to meet the residency requirement for candidates and for using a different name when he filed his candidacy.
Complainant Luis Jaspe Jr. claimed that Arenas committed material representation “when he stated in his COC that he is a resident of Brgy. Tubigan, Zarraga, Iloilo and when he wrote therein the name Ramon Jimenez Arenas Jr. notwithstanding the fact that no such name appears in his registration record.”
Jaspe claimed that Arenas never abandoned his original domicile in Makati City and there is no indication that the latter actually transferred his residence from Makati City to Brgy. Tubigan, Zarraga, Iloilo. He cited as evidence Arenas’s failure to transfer his entire family, including his children from Makati City to Brgy. Tubigan.
Jaspe also asserted that the name Ramon Arenas Jr. does not exist in the voter’s registration record of Zarraga as the name appearing in therein is Ramoncito Jimenez Arenas.
Comelec, after conducting a hearing, noted that “the records are completely devoid of any evidence, documentary or otherwise, that can possibly persuade this Commission that indeed respondent has seriously resided in his new ‘domicile of choice’ at Brgy. Tubigan, Zarraga, Iloilo from the time he applied for registration thereat in March 2009 and up to the present, and that he has complied with the required one year residency prior to the incoming May 2010 elections.”
“While respondent’s supposed transfer of residence from Makati City s voluntary, the reality is that said transfer was effected only in order to meet the residency requirement laid down by the law to qualify as Representative of the Second District of Iloilo. There is no concrete proof that the residence chosen by him as his new domicile is actual and his purpose to remain in or at his domicile of choice is for an indefinite period of time... Moreover, the records of the Election Officer of Zarraga, Iloilo reveal that no Ramon Jimenez Arenas Jr. applied for registration as voter in his district. These are clear indications of respondent’s non-abandonment of his domicile of origin,” the Comelec ruled.
The Comelec Second Division resolution promulgated February 11, 2010, but was made available to the media, last weekend was penned by Presiding Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer.
With the cancellation of Arenas’s candidacy there will only be two candidates for congressman in the Second District, namely, Augusto Syjuco Jr. of the Lakas-Kampi-CMD and independent candidate Diopito Gonzales.
