ROMUALDEZ-MARCOS V.

COMELEC
Petitioner: Imelda Romualdez-Marcis
Respondent: Commission on Elections (COMELEC)
Private respondent: Cirilo Roy Montejo

Facts:

On March 23, 1995, Montejo, incumbent of and candidate for the position of
Representative of the First District of Leyte, filed a petition for cancellation and disqualification
of Marcos for the same position with the COMELEC alleging that Marcos did not meet the
residency requirement. The petitioner, in an honest misrepresentation, wrote seven months
under residency, which he sought to rectify by adding the words “since childhood” in her
Amended/Corrected COC filed on March 29, 1995 and that “she has always maintained
Tacloban City as her domicile or residence.

Issue:

Whether or not plaintiff had established legal residency required to be a candidate of

the district of Leyte.

Held:

Yes. It is the fact of residence, not a statement in a COC which ought to be decisive in
determining whether or not an individual has satisfied the constitutional requirement on
residency.

Residence is used synonymously with domicile for election purposes. The court is in
favor of a conclusion supporting petitioner’s claim of legal residence or domicile in the First
District of Leyte despite her own declaration of 7 months residency in the district for the
following reasons:

1. A minor follows domicile of her parents – Tacloban became Imelda’s domicile of

origin by operation of aw when her father brought them to Leyte;
2. Domicile of origin is only lost when there is actual removal or change of domicile, a
bona fide intention of abandoning the former residence and establishing a new one,
and acts with correspond with the purpose. In the absence and concurrence of al
these, domicile of origin should be deemed to continue;
3. A wife does not automatically gain the husband’s domicile because the term
“residence” in Civil Law does not mean the same thing in Political Law. When Imelda
married late president Marcos in 1954, she kept her domicile of origin and merely
gained a new home and not domicilium necessarium;
4. Assuming that Imelda gained a new domicile after her marriage and acquired right
to choose a new one only after the death of Pres. Marcos, her actions upon
returning to the country clearly indicated that she chose Tacloban, her domicile of
origin, as her domicile of choice. Petitioner even obtained her residence certificate
in 1992 in Tacloban, Leyte while living in her brother’s house, an act, which supports
the domiciliary intention clearly manifested.

Court ruled in favor of the petitioner that she possessed the necessary residence
qualifications to run for a seat in the House of Representatives in the First District of
Leyte.