Comelec junks disqualification petitionvs NE Congress bet

By Liam Anacleto

CABANATUAN CITY – The Commission on Elections  has dismissed for lack of merit a disqualification case against a 32-year-old congressional candidate in Nueva Ecija’s fourth congressional district.

In a nine-page resolution, the poll body’s First Division dismissed the petition against Magnolia Rosa Antonino-Nadres, daughter of outgoing three-term fourth district Rep. Rodolfo Antonino.

The five-page petition was filed last Feb. 27 by Pedro Fajardo and Desita Garcia who alleged that Antonino-Nadres could not run for Congress, as she is not a natural-born citizen of the Philippines.

The petitioners alleged that she is not registered with the National Statistics Office and that she holds an American passport.

They also noted that in her certificate of candidacy filed last Oct. 2, Antonino-Nadres wrote that she was born in San Mateo County, California which, pursuant to the doctrine of “jus soli” makes her an American citizen.

But Antonino-Nadres argued that while she was born in the United States, her parents – Rep. Antonino and Rosa Marina Caram – are both Filipino citizens. She said that since the Philippines follows the principle of “jus sanguinis,” she followed the nationality of her parents, regardless of where she was born.

She added that the Bureau of Immigration issued her in 1996 an order recognizing her as a natural-born Filipino citizen. 

The Comelec resolution, signed by Commissioners LucenitoTagle and Christian Robert Lim, ruled that the disqualification petition used the wrong mode in questioning Antonino-Nadres’ eligibility to run in the congressional elections.

The petition, according to the poll body, was filed four months after the period to file cancellation of a certificate of candidacy had lapsed.

It added that the petitioners misapplied the provision of Section 25 of Comelec Resolution 9523 which provides for the grounds to disqualify a candidate.

Antonino-Nadres is running under the National Unity Party founded by the elder Antonino, against two-time San Leonardo Mayor Froilan Nagano, comebacking former two-term congresswomanJulita Lorenzo-Villareal and Villareal’s sister-in-law, former San Isidro mayor and Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines executive director Sonia Lorenzo.