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 petitioners 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 Imeldas 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 husbands 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 brothers 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.