CA affirms Aga Muhlach’s congressional bid in Camarines

MANILA, Philippines - The Court of Appeals (CA) has affirmed a ruling it handed down in February allowing actor Aga Muhlach to run for a congressional seat in Camarines Sur.           

In a two-page resolution released yesterday, the appellate court dismissed the motion filed by private complainants seeking to disqualify Muhlach from running in the May polls over a residency issue.

The CA said the respondents – Francisco Perico Dizon, Edgar Malate, Crispin Imperial and Ferdinand Fernando Felix Monasterio – failed to raise new arguments to warrant the reversal of its earlier ruling.

“Considering that the matters raised in the present motion have already been sufficiently passed upon by this court, and further finding no cogent reason with which to modify, much less reverse, our assailed decision dated February 13, 2013, private respondents’ motion for reconsideration, dated Feb. 26, 2013, is hereby denied,” read the ruling penned by Associate Justice Vicente Veloso.

Associate Justices Jane Aurora Lantion and Eduardo Peralta Jr. concurred in this ruling.

In the assailed decision, the CA had reversed an earlier ruling of a trial court of San Jose town, Camarines Sur that delisted Muhlach from the municipal voters’ list over supposed non-compliance with the period of residency required of a voter. 

The appellate court granted Muhlach’s and his wife’s petition seeking a reversal of the trial court’s ruling issued in December last year.

The CA ordered the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to officially reinstate the Muhlachs in the voters’ list and allow him to proceed with his candidacy as representative of the 4th district of the province.

The CA held that the Muhlachs met the requirements in transferring their registration to the province, and that the regional trial court erred in disenfranchising them. 

Records showed the Muhlachs moved to San Jose on Feb. 17, 2012, or 15 months before the May 13 polls. The law requires six month residency in a city or municipality where a candidate intends to run for public office.