Comelec DQs Camarines Sur gubernatorial bet over residency issue
MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) division disqualified a Camarines Sur gubernatorial candidate over an issue regarding residency, but a commissioner offered a separate opinion to express reservations.
In its resolution furnished to the media on Wednesday night, the Comelec first division disqualified Ronald Alarkon Rodriguez over alleged material misrepresentation in his certificate of candidacy (COC) on his residency.
Petitioners Danilo Penda Camba and Buenaventura Brod Sunguad alleged that Rodriguez declared in his COC that he lives in a village in Barangay Palestina in Pili, Camarines Sur, but is actually a resident of Aeroville Subdivision in San Felipe, Naga City.
Naga City is an independent component city, making it outside the jurisdiction of the provincial government of Camarines Sur. Therefore, residents of the city could not run and vote for provincial positions.
Section 39 of the Local Government Code (LGC) provides that elective local officials, like governors, must be registered voters in the province where they intend to be elected and that they should be residents therein for at least one year immediately preceding the day of the election.
READ: Comelec rejects residency transfer bid of ex-Taguig Mayor Lino Cayetano
Petitioners submitted sworn statements from the residents of Palestina village who said they did not see Rodriguez there, as well as sworn affidavits from a village councilor in San Felipe subdivision who said that the respondent is still living there.
Petitioners also cited inconsistencies with Rodriguez’s COC, where he declared that he had been a resident of Pili since April 2024. His Application of Transfer of Registration Record, which was executed on May 7, 2024, said he has been living in Pili for about six months, which means he would have been living there since December 2023.
As for the residency discrepancy between his COC and transfer record, Rodriguez said it was due to the Comelec’s voter registration system not allowing a “one-month” option and only a minimum of “six months” during his application of residency transfer.
Rodriguez also explained that he had looked for a retirement home in Pili town after recovering from severe COVID-19. Rodriguez then submitted a lease contract for an apartment in Pili on April 9, 2024, which is more than a year behind the May 12, 2025 elections as required by law.
Aside from this, he submitted his phone and internet bills, and proof of delivery on an online delivery platform to prove his residency.
But the division said such evidence failed to substantiate his intent to remain in and to permanently transfer his home to Pili, Camarines Sur, from Naga City. They noted that the lease is not for a long term, and the addresses on his bills could be “changed on a whim.”
“From the foregoing, we are not convinced that Respondent has sufficiently established his intent to remain (animus manendi) in the supposed new domicile (animus non revertendi) in order to meet the residency qualification in the Section 39 of the Omnibus Election Code,” the resolution said.
Separate opinion
However, in a separate opinion, Comelec commissioner Ernesto Maceda Jr. said: “I find that the respondent was able to demonstrate compliance with the one-year residency requirement mandated by the LGC.”
Maceda said he disagreed “with the manner by which the majority disregarded Respondents’ lease agreements, utility records, and course of conduct, and discounted them as showing intent to permanently reside” in Pili town.
The commissioner also said it is credible the sworn statements of Rodriguez’s neighbors in Pili who attested that they saw him in the village since April 2024, as well as the barangay certification issued by the Palestina’s village captain.
“It is my position that the finding of the Commission (First Division) not only disregarded applicable law and binding precedents but also rested on a misappreciation of the evidence presented,” he added.
