COMELEC CANCELS JOSON CANDIDACY VS BROTHER IN NUEVA ECIJA TOWN
QUEZON, NUEVA ECIJA—A projected battle for mayor between two siblings of the influential Joson clan has been nipped in the bud, after the Commission on Elections (Comelec) ruled against the candidacy of former Nueva Ecija Gov. Eduardo Nonato Joson.
In a decision promulgated on Jan. 26, the Comelec first division granted the Oct. 13 petition to cancel the certificate of candidacy of Eduardo, who would have challenged the reelection bid of his younger brother, Quezon town Mayor Mariano Cristino Joson.
Eduardo, also a former Nueva Ecija first district representative, said in social media posts that he would remain a candidate for mayor of the town as he intended to elevate the Comelec ruling to the Supreme Court.
He also said a municipal trial court had approved his petition for inclusion in the voters’ list of Quezon town.
Mariano, in his petition, accused his older brother of misrepresenting himself by claiming to have been a Quezon resident for the past 71 years to back his mayoral bid in the May 2022 national and local elections.
His petition claimed that the former governor was, in fact, a resident of Barangay Pacac in the Nueva Ecija town of Guimba, and “has long abandoned his domicile of origin” having been raised in Quezon City and had pursued his studies in New York City before settling in Guimba.
To support his petition, Mariano supplied the Comelec with an affidavit issued by their mother, Araceli, which stated that her older son studied at the University of San Beda from grade school to law school while residing in New Manila, Quezon City.
The younger Joson also presented documents that prove his brother has been a Guimba resident since 2000 and had never owned a property in Quezon town.
Eduardo, in his response on Nov. 19, insisted that he never abandoned his birth home, asserting that his “mere absence from his permanent residence without intention to abandon it does not result in a loss of residence.” He also maintained that the law does not require someone to own property to establish one’s domicile.
But in the ruling signed by Comelec Commissioners Rowena Guanzon, Marlon Casquejo and Aimee Ferolino, the first division concluded that Eduardo’s reliance on the fact that he was born in Quezon town, has an ancestral home there and would occasionally visit the municipality were “insufficient to establish that he is able to comply with the residency requirement.”