Lack of legal and factual basis
I have been a voter of Mabolo since the 1990s during the first SK election up to now. My residence certificate is still Mabolo. I have properties outside Mabolo but it does not mean I am not from Mabolo.
MABALO BARANGAY CAPTAIN NINA MABATID, ON THE PETITION ALLEGING SHE FAILED TO COMPLY WITH THE RESIDENCY REQUIREMENT IN THE ELECTIONS
Arguedo claimed that Niña failed to meet the residency requirement because she is living in Talamban
Being a lawyer, Daniel Arguedo knows that he has no legal and factual basis to file a quo warranto case against elected barangay captain Niña Mabatid on the basis that the latter supposedly failed to met the one year residency requirement for a candidate to be allowed to run in the election. Arguedo is a defeated candidate for barangay captain in Mabolo. But he is filing it for political and personal reasons and to legally harass the lady barangay captain.
“Political” in the sense that he was defeated by Niña. “Personal” because Niña also defeated Arguedo’s client in a labor case. Arguedo was the lawyer of singer Eva Santos, who filed a labor case against Mabatid. Santos and her husband David used to work for Niña’s international company, Pinoy Care Visa Center. Mabatid dismissed the couple over money matters prompting them to file a labor case.
Or maybe Arguedo was influenced by his newfound ally, the “former political has-been” to go after Niña. Arguedo is now the Barangay Mayor’s Office (BMO) head in Mabolo. The “former political has-been” consider Niña as a threat to his endorsed candidate for the Association of Barangay Councils (ABC) presidency, Kasambagan barangay captain Franklin Ong.
First, Arguedo filed a case against Mabatid for vote-buying. But the court dismissed it outright for lack of legal basis. Then he filed a quo warranto petition that was also dismissed. But he filed a motion for reconsideration.
Quo warranto “is a prerogative writ requiring the persons to whom it is directed at to show what authority they have for exercising some rights, power or franchise they claim to hold.”
Arguedo claimed that Niña failed to meet the residency requirement because she is living in Talamban. Under Section 2 of Comelec resolution No. 10196 series of 2017, the qualifications for punong barangay are: a citizen of the Philippines, a registered voter in the barangay where he intends to be elected, a resident therein for at least one year immediately preceding the day of the election, is able to read and write Filipino or any other local language, and is at least 18 years of age on election day.
Niña was born and grew up in Mabolo. She is a registered voter of Mabolo since 1990. On the issue of being a non-resident, I think this is already a well-settled jurisprudence in the case of Imelda Marcos versus Comelec (G.R. No. 119976 Sept. 18, 1995). Besides, there is a such thing as, “animus revertendi,” a Latin phrase that means “with intention to return.”
Imelda filed a certificate of candidacy (COC) for congresswoman in the first district of Leyte, stating she was a resident there for seven months. Her opponent filed a petition for the cancellation of her COC claiming she did not meet the residency requirement. Imelda changed the entry from “seven months” to “since childhood.” Although she was born and grew up in Manila, her parents were originally from Tacloban. The Supreme Court ruled that Imelda was qualified to run because of “domicile in origin.”