Ronda mayor mulls raps vs. judge for alleged bias
Ronda mayor Esteban Sia threatened to sue Regional Trial Court judge Leopoldo Cañete for allegedly rendering an unjust decision by deciding in favor of the petition questioning his qualification to sit as mayor for not having met the residency requirements.
Sia said his lawyer Sixto Brillantes is mulling filing a complaint before the Office of the Court Administrator of the Supreme Court against Cañete for alleged ignorance of the law when he granted the petition of Jonald Ungab, which in effect disqualified him to sit as mayor, because the basis for the petition was allegedly an obsolete law.
The court anchored its decision on Section 9 of the Republic Act 8189 which states that “a residency in the
This was also cited in Section 117 of the Omnibus Election Code. Based on the court ruling, Sia lost his domicile of origin when he became a naturalized American citizen after joining the U.S. Navy in 1965.
But according to Sia, there is already a new law that allegedly states that he did not lose his original domicile. He however failed to cite the law but said his lawyer will use it in their argument in his appeal before the Commission on Elections.
In fact, Sia said this was made as basis by one Comelec commissioner in favoring him when the same issue was allegedly raised before the commission.
Sia and his family lived abroad for several years until he came back to Ronda in 2006 and decided to run for mayor in the last May 2007 elections. He denounced his American citizenship as a requirement for all candidates to be a Filipino citizen and finally reacquired his Filipino citizenship on January 2007.
But the court ruled that Sia fell short of the required period of residency under the law.
On top of the plan to file a case against the judge, Sia said they are giving priority to the filing of an appeal. — Fred P. Languido/BRP
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