Mitra asks Supreme Court to dismiss disqualification case

MANILA, Philippines - Outgoing Palawan Rep. Abraham Mitra has asked the Supreme Court (SC) to invalidate the decision of the Commission on Elections (Come-lec) disqualifying him as a gubernatorial candidate.

Mitra, a three-term congressman, has been elected governor of his province because the SC stopped the Comelec from enforcing its decision two days before the May 10 elections.

He defeated billionaire businessman Jose “Pepito” Alvarez, who made his fortune from logging in Palawan during the Marcos regime before the government declared the province an endangered forested area.

The case against Mitra stemmed from his decision to transfer his residence from Puerto Princesa City to Aborlan town because Puerto Princesa has become a highly urbanized city that is no longer entitled to vote for provincial officials.

The Comelec ruled that he violated the residency requirement since he could not have lived in a “small, sparsely furnished room on the second floor of a farmhouse” in Aborlan.

Through his lawyers, Mitra told the SC that the Comelec erred in interpreting the residency requirement of the Election Code.

“The intimacy of the living conditions of the dwelling chosen is not required by law or jurisprudence to determine compliance or fulfillment of the residency requirement. Neither does the law require that the location of one’s residence be commensurate to his personal status,” he said.

“The determination of whether a person has changed his residence is primarily a question of his intention and not of the suitability of the living conditions,” he said.

Mitra ran and won as governor under the Liberal Party. His lawyers include former Senate President Jovito Salonga, who once headed LP.

“Mitra has been a full-blooded Palaweño all his life. Against the other candidate for governor who would benefit from his disqualification, it is Mitra who can rightfully claim to be a true Palaweño,” his lawyers informed the SC.

They said their client, having served as Palawan congressman for nine years, could not be considered a “stranger” in Aborlan town or in his province. – With Edu Punay