GR 186006; (October, 2009) (Digest)
G.R. No. 186006 ; October 16, 2009
NORLAINIE MITMUG LIMBONA, Petitioner, vs. COMMISSION ON ELECTIONS and MALIK “BOBBY” T. ALINGAN, Respondents.
FACTS
Prior to the May 14, 2007 elections, petitioner Norlainie Mitmug Limbona and her husband, Mohammad Limbona, each filed a Certificate of Candidacy for Mayor of Pantar, Lanao del Norte. Private respondent Malik Alingan filed petitions to disqualify both, alleging they lacked the one-year residency requirement and were not registered voters of Pantar. Petitioner withdrew her candidacy, which the COMELEC approved. The elections in Pantar were postponed, and a special election was set for July 23, 2007. Following the COMELEC’s disqualification of her husband for residency issues, petitioner filed a new Certificate of Candidacy as a substitute candidate on July 21, 2007. Alingan filed a new disqualification petition (SPA No. 07-621).
The COMELEC Second Division, in a Resolution dated November 23, 2007, disqualified petitioner. It ruled her domicile of origin was Maguing, Lanao del Norte, and upon marriage, her domicile by operation of law became Barangay Rapasun, Marawi City, where her husband served as Barangay Chairman until November 2006. The COMELEC found petitioner’s evidence of abandoning these domiciles to establish residency in Pantar consisted of uncorroborated, self-serving affidavits and noted she was not a registered voter there. The COMELEC En Banc affirmed this disqualification in a Resolution dated January 14, 2009.
ISSUE
Whether the COMELEC committed grave abuse of discretion in disqualifying petitioner for failure to meet the one-year residency requirement for the mayoralty position.
RULING
The Supreme Court dismissed the petition. The core legal principle applied is the doctrine of conclusiveness of judgment or preclusion of issues. The Court held that the identical issue of petitioner’s compliance with the one-year residency requirement for the mayoralty post in Pantar had already been squarely raised and categorically resolved with finality in a prior Supreme Court case, Norlainie Mitmug Limbona v. Commission on Elections and Malik “Bobby” T. Alingan ( G.R. No. 181097 , June 25, 2008). In that previous decision, the Court upheld the COMELEC’s finding that petitioner failed to prove she had abandoned her domicile of origin or her marital domicile in Marawi City to establish the required residency in Pantar.
Consequently, the present petition, which merely restated the same arguments regarding her residency, could not be entertained anew on its merits. The Court is bound by its prior final ruling on the same issue between the same parties. The COMELEC’s assailed Resolutions were therefore affirmed, as no grave abuse of discretion attended its decision, which was consistent with the already settled judicial determination of petitioner’s disqualification.