EDITORIAL – Residency

Until July next year, residents of the sixth district of Manila will just have to make do without representation in Congress. All in all, the residents would be deprived of House representation for half of the term that was supposed to have been served by the man they had elected to Congress, Mark Jimenez.

To be sure, finishing his three-year term had always been iffy for Jimenez. There was, first of all, Washington’s request for his extradition in connection with indictments against him in the United States. Then there were questions raised about his residency in the district that he sought to represent. Jimenez used the Manila address of his first wife in filing his candidacy for the House of Representatives. It was no secret, however, that he was living with another woman in posh Forbes Park in Makati.

Those issues did not matter for the voters of Manila’s sixth district. Now they are left without congressional representation for a year and a half. Not only is Jimenez under house arrest in Florida after a two-month incarceration in that state; he has also been booted out of his congressional seat by the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET). The main reason for his ouster: he failed to comply with the residency requirement.

Jimenez is not the only carpetbagger who has won an elective post in this country. Several mayors of Metro Manila did not live in their cities during their incumbency. Congressmen maintain houses in their districts in the provinces but never live there, preferring the exclusive gated villages in Metro Manila. There are gray areas that politicians have long exploited to go around the residency requirement.

When they are found out and disqualified, however, it is their constituents who suffer. Congress, the Supreme Court, the HRET and the Commission on Elections should craft clear-cut rules on the residency requirement. That way, candidates won’t waste time, effort and money when they know they face disqualification, and voters can be assured that the people they elect won’t be booted out in the middle of their term.