Comelec dismisses petition vs. Aga Muhlach

MANILA — The Commission on Elections has dismissed the disqualification case filed against Aga Muhlach questioning his residency requirement in San Jose, Camarines Sur, where he is running in the Congressional race in the May 13, 2013 elections.

Lawyer Romulo Macalintal, Muhlach’s legal counsel, said that based on the resolution issued on March 5 by the poll body’s Second Division, the actor had established the one-year residency requirement in the province.
“We rule that the respondent has been able to adduce substantial evidence to demonstrate compliance with the one-year residency under the law. His ancestry is traced in the Province of Camarines Sur. Respondent established his actual physical presence in the district. As early as April 2011, he purchased a property in San Jose, Camarines Sur,” said part of the decision decision penned by presiding Commissioner Elias Yusoph and concurred in by Commissioner Maria Gracia Cielo Padaca.
Macalintal, who received the decision Friday through registered mail on Thursday (March 14), added the Comelec also accepted as material evidence Muhlach’s residency.
“His address and business interests and communications with the Bureau of Internal Revenue since April 2012, thus ruling that these are indicative of his intention to make San Jose, Camarines Sur as his domicile,” the resolution added.
The Comelec further ruled that the petitioners “never presented any evidence showing that Muhlach deliberately intended to commit the alleged false representation to deceive the electorate when he stated in his Certificate of Candidacy that he has all the qualifications to be a Representative of the fourth district of Camarines Sur in the May 2013 elections.
Muhlach is running in the 4th District of Camarines Sur.
The case stemmed on the petition filed by Crispin Imperial and Francisco Dizon questioning the actor’s residency in the said province