- MITCH M. LIPA
The decision of a Regional Trial Court that dismissed the petition against the residency of Alfredo “Albee” Benitez in Bacolod City is final and executory, his counsel said.
Lawyer Andrei Norman Saril said the Election Registration Board, Municipal Trial Circuit Court, and Regional Trial Court all ruled that Benitez has fully complied with the requirements on residency.
The RTC decision can no longer be subjected to any motion for reconsideration, based on the law, Saril added.
RTC Judge Ana Celeste Bernad, in an 11-page decision, affirmed the earlier ruling of the MTCC that junked a petition to exclude Benitez in the voters’ list of Bacolod City.
“This court believes that the court a quo had committed no error in its findings and appreciation of the facts and evidence in this case,” Bernad said.
The MTCC, on Oct. 1 last year, dismissed the petition for exclusion filed against Benitez from the list of registered voters of Precinct Number 0629A in Barangay Mandalagan, Bacolod City, by petitioners Hector Yula, Teodoro Abao, and Jonah Tornea Abao.
But the three claimed that the MTCC erred when it ruled that Benitez has established his domicile in Bacolod City, despite the overwhelming evidences being presented on the contrary, and raised the petition to the RTC.
Benitez said that he has proven, by overwhelming and substantial evidence, that he is physically residing in Mountain View Subdivision in Barangay Mandalagan, Bacolod, that he intends to permanently reside there, and that he had abandoned his domicile in Victorias City, court records show.
Bernad said, “This Court is of the view that the Election Registration Board has correctly applied the pertinent provisions of the law governing the matter.”
Saril said the ERB, MTCC, and RTC rulings mean that “as of the date of the May 9 elections, Benitez is a resident of Barangay Mandalagan, Bacolod for one year and 11 months from the date he applied his application to transfer his voting records.” — MML
