Pacquiao camp hires top lawyers vs rival

ALABEL, Sarangani, Philippines – The camp of world boxing champion Manny Pacquiao has hired a group of top election lawyers to handle the disqualification case it filed against businessman Roy Chiongbian, his main rival for Sarangani congressman in the May 2010 elections.

Trader Juan Domino, Sarangani gubernatorial bet of Pacquiao’s People’s Champ Movement (PCM), said election lawyers Romulo Macalintal and Sixto Brillantes would lead the legal team.

“We believe that with these two gentlemen leading our charge at the Commission on Elections, the case will take on added urgency and legal weight,” Domino told reporters here yesterday.

Domino himself was the subject of a similar disqualification case when he ran against Lucille Chiongbian Solon, Roy’s elder sister, in the 1998 congressional race.

Domino won the case but was unable to assume office after the Supreme Court affirmed a Comelec ruling disqualifying him for lack of residency.    

In a three-page petition filed by provincial board member and Kiamba town mayoral candidate Raul Martinez, in his capacity as PCM secretary-general, it was alleged that Chiongbian “is not a resident of the province” and that “he provided false information in his certificate of candidacy (COC)” when he indicated that his residence is at Purok 1, Barangay Kling in Kiamba, Sarangani.

“Chiongbian’s Sarangani address was used and abused for election purposes only. Most, if not all, the residents there had neither seen nor heard of him until last June when he first showed his face in the province and manifested his intention to run for Congress,” Martinez said.

He said Chiongbian was actually a resident of Ayala Alabang, Muntinlupa City where he helps run the family-owned International Plastic Packaging, Eastern Shipping Lines Inc., and Japri Container Terminal Inc.