‘Nueva Ecija congressional bet’s DQ not yet final’

MANILA, Philippines - Rosanna Vergara is still a candidate for congresswoman in the third congressional district of Nueva Ecija, her lawyer, former Commission on Elections commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal, said yesterday.

Larrazabal said the decision of the Cabanatuan Municipal Trial Court (MTC) to remove Vergara’s name from the list of candidates over her void registration and American citizenship is not yet final pending a decision on their motion for reconsideration.

Vergara, wife of Cabanatuan City Mayor Julius Vergara, is running against Nueva Ecija Gov. Aurelio Umali.

Larrazabal denied that Vergara’s registration had been deactivated when she became an American citizen in 1998. Vergara reacquired her Filipino citizenship in 2006 and executed an affidavit of renunciation of foreign citizenship in 2015.

 “They know that their case before the Comelec (Commission on Elections), which is up for resolution, has no basis so they filed a harassment case before the MTC,” he said.

Vergara earlier said the disqualification case filed against her by Philip Piccio was “nothing more than personal and political vendetta.”

 “I am fully confident that the law is on my side. I am a natural-born Filipino citizen. I have been a registered voter in Cabanatuan since 1994… I am more than qualified,” she said.