This case has been cited 1 times or more.
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2008-12-24 |
BRION, J. |
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| Whether Velasco possesses all the qualifications and none of the disqualifications to register as a voter of Sasmuan, Pampanga is a matter that is not directly before us as his inclusion as a Sasmuan voter is not before us. As the COMELEC did, we rely on the final and executory RTC ruling excluding Velasco from the Sasmuan voters' list. We observe, however, that at the time he filed his application for registration with the COMELEC local office on October 13, 2006, Velasco was a dual citizen. The records show that Velasco renounced his American citizenship only on March 28, 2007,[13] although he secured his dual citizenship status as early as July 31, 2006 at the Philippine Consulate in San Francisco, California.[14] Under his dual citizenship status, he possessed the right to vote in Philippine elections through the absentee voting scheme under Republic Act No. 9189 (the Oversees Absentee Voting Law or the OAVL)[15] as we ruled in Nicolas-Lewis v. COMELEC.[16] In Macalintal v. COMELEC,[17] we significantly said that absentee voters are exempted from the constitutional residency requirement for regular Philippine voters. Thus, the residency requirements we cited above under the VRA and the LGC do not apply to Velasco, assuming he registered as a dual citizen/absentee voter. | |||||