Topic: disqualification to being municipal mayor due to unmet requirement of residency
OZAETA, J.:
FACTS:
1. Pedro Gallego, herein petitioner, is a native of Abuyog, Leyte. He was a school teacher in different municipalities and ran for municipal mayor post in his hometown but was defeated.
2. After his defeat, he was in debt and unemployed. He first went to Oriental Misamis, but finding no employment, he proceeded to Kaato-an, Malaybalay Bukidnon where he arrived on 20 June 1938 and instantly found a job as a nurseryman in the chichona plantation of the Bureau of Forestry. He went back to Abuyog on 30 July 1938 for an offer of being a school teacher. He did not accept the job and returned to Kaato-an on 23 August 1938 until his resignation in 1940. During his stay in Kaato-an, his wife and children remained in Abuyog. He didn't take his family to the house the government offered to him nor availed parcels of land within the reserve of chichona reservation. While he was in Malaybalay, he and his wife purchased real property in Abuyog.
3. Nevertheless, the Court declared that Gallego had acquired a residence or domicile in Malaybalay since:
3.1. he registered as an elector in precinct No. 14 of Lantapan, Malaybalay;
3.2. he voted there in an assemblyman election in December 1938;
3.3. his voter's affidavit corresponding to his period of residence was left blank.
4. In the 1940 general elections, he ran as a municipal mayor of Abuyog and won over Vicente Verra. However, Verra filed petitioned that his election be declared illegal on the ground that he did not meet the residence qualification.
5. This was granted by the Court of First Instance of Leyte and affirmed by the CA. Thus, this petition.
ISSUE/s:
Whether or not Gallego is disqualified from assuming the municipal mayor seat due to unmet residence
requirement?
RULING:
NO. Gallego can still assume the municipal mayor seat. 'Residence' is synonymous with domicile' in election law. To acquire domicile by choice, there should be [1] residence or bodily presence in the new locality, [2] and intention to remain there, [3] an intention to abandon the old domicile.
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