|
The Supreme Court has affirmed the disqualification of a town mayor
in Bohol who was found holding a “green card” or a certificate
indicating his being a permanent resident of the United States,
reported the Philippine News Agency over the weekend.
Jose Ugdoracion is ordered unseated from his
post as Albuquerque town mayor in Associate Justice Eduardo
Nachura’s 12-page decision.
Prior to this development, Ugdoracion served
from 1986 to 1998, as a councilor and as chief executive.
The Court’s decision affirmed an earlier
resolution promulgated by the Commission on Election’s (Comelec)
First Division on May 8, 2007, canceling Ugdoracion’s certificate
of candidacy (COC) for material misrepresentation.
Ugdoracion stated in his COC that he had resided
in Albuquerque for 41 years before the May 14, 2007 elections and
that he is neither a permanent resident nor an immigrant to a
foreign country.
But records show that he became a permanent
resident of the USA on Sept. 26, 2001.
The United Sates Immigration and Naturalization
Services issued him Alien Certificate No. 047-894-254.
In the decision, the Court said that the Comelec
did not commit a grave abuse of discretion in canceling
Ugdoracion’s COC for material misrepresentation, stressing “that
a Filipino citizen’s acquisition of a permanent resident status
abroad constitutes an abandonment of his domicile and residence in
the Philippines.”
“In short, the ‘green card’ status in the
USA is a renunciation of one’s status as resident of the
Philippines,” the Court added.
It also noted that the evidence presented by
Ugdoracion that had abandoned his permanent resident status, dated
Oct. 18, 2006, was a mere application and does not bear any note of
approval by the concerned US official.
It added that assuming that application was duly
approved, Ugdoracion is still disqualified as he failed to meet the
one-year residency requirement.
The Court also stressed that even if Ugdoracion
had won in the last May 2007 election, it did not absolve his
violation of election laws.
“Sadly, winning the election does not
substitute for the specific requirements of law on a person’s
eligibility for public office which he lacked, and does not cure his
material misrepresentation which is a valid ground for the
cancellation of his COC,” the Court added.
|
