G.R. No.

119976
September 18, 1995
IMELDA ROMUALDEZ-MARCOS, PETITIONER, VS. COMMISSION
ON ELECTIONS AND CIRILO ROY MONTEJO, RESPONDENTS.

FACTS: The 1987 Constitution requires an aspirant for election for the
House of Representatives to be a registered voter of the desired district as
well as a resident of the said district for not less than one year prior the
election. The petitioner, Imelda Romualdez-Marcos filed her Certificate of
Candidacy for the position of Representative of the First District of Leyte
stating that she have lived therein as a resident for the last seven
months. Montejo, an opposition, filed a petition for cancellation and
disqualification of her candidacy with the grounds of Romualdez-Marcos
does not have the residency requirement mandated by the constitution.
She then amended her candidacy changing her residency from seven
months to since birth indicating that it was an honest
misrepresentation and that she have maintained domicile in Tacloban ever
since.

Issue: 
Whether or not Imelda Marcos was a resident of the First District of Leyte
to satisfy the one year residency requirement to be eligible in running as
representative.
Held:
Yes. The court is in favor of a conclusion supporting petitioner’s claim of
legal residence or domicile in the First District of Leyte.
Residence is synonymous with domicile which reveals a tendency or
mistake the concept of domicile for actual residence, a conception not
intended for the purpose of determining a candidate’s qualifications for the
election to the House of Representatives as required by the 1987
Constitution.
An individual does not lose her domicile even if she has lived and
maintained residences in different places. In the case at bench, the
evidence adduced by Motejo lacks the degree of persuasiveness as
required to convince the court that an abandonment of domicile of origin in
favor of a domicile of choice indeed incurred. It cannot be correctly argued
that Marcos lost her domicile of origin by operation of law as a result of her
marriage to the late President Ferdinand E. Marcos.
It can be concluded that the facts supporting its proposition that petitioner
was ineligible to run for the position of Representative of the First District of
Leyte, the COMELEC was obviously referring to petitioner’s various places
of (actual) residence, not her domicile.
Having determined that Marcos possessed the necessary residence
qualifications to run for a seat in the House of Representatives in the First
District of Leyte.Provincial Board of Canvassers is directed to proclaim
Marcos as the duly elected Representative of the First District of Leyte.