AS expected, the COMELEC First Division also disqualified Sen. Grace Poe from running in the presidential race. What was unexpected was the vigorous 81-page dissent of Senior Commissioner Christian Robert Lim.
In a vote of 2-1, the division ruled that Poe committed “material misrepresentation” when she claimed in her COC that she is a natural-born Filipino citizen and has resided in the Philippines for at least 10 years.
Commissioners Louie Guia and Rowena Guanzon voted to cancel Poe’s COC. While the Lim Dissent may be a lone voice in the wilderness, it requires close scrutiny because the Supreme Court, the final arbiter in this case, will surely take note of Lim’s arguments which has earned much praise from legal observers.
In his dissent, Lim argued that Poe met the 10-year residency requirement of the Constitution since the term “residence” has always been understood in election cases as being synonymous with “domicile” which means an “intention to reside in a fixed place coupled with conduct conducive to such intention.”
In other words, as ruled by the Supreme Court in a long line of cases, residency or domicile is principally a “question of intention revealed by the acts and circumstances of the person establishing a place as his permanent dwelling.”
In the case of Senator Poe, she abandoned her old domicile in the US and established a new one in the Philippines in May 24, 2005. In fact, she was physically present in the country as early as that date.
Poe resigned her work in the US in early 2004 and following her resignation, she engaged US firm Victory Van Corporation for the relocation, storage, and shipment of her family’s household goods, furniture, and vehicles to Manila.
Upon arrival in Manila on May 24, 2005, she enrolled her children, Brian and Hanna, at the Beacon School and Assumption College, respectively.
Two months later, she obtained a TIN from the BIR which is proof of her submission to the local tax jurisdiction.
In February of the next year, she acquired a condominium unit in San Juan for residential purposes. This was followed by the acquisition of a residential lot in Corinthian Hills, Quezon City.
Thus, Lim argued that the Senator, has in fact, been actually and physically residing in the country as of May 24, 2005 or for a period of 10 years and 11 months preceding the May 2016 elections which is more than enough to meet the 10-year residency rule.
As a layman, I commend Commissioner Lim for going against the tide. It would have been easier for him to just join the COMELEC choir but I suspect the good commissioner was looking at history and his legacy as a commissioner at this critical juncture in our nation’s history.
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Comments are welcome at articulouno1898@gmail.com FRONTLINES OF POLITICS/JONATHAN MALAYA
