G.R. Nos. 260219 & 260231, April 22, 2025
DATU PAX ALI S. MANGUDADATU, PETITIONER, VS. THE COMMISSION ON ELECTIONS, SHARIFA AKEEL MANGUDADATU, AZEL V. MANGUDADATU, AND BAI ALI A. UNTONG, RESPONDENTS.

FACTS

Petitioner Pax Ali Mangudadatu, whose domicile of origin was in Lutayan, Sultan Kudarat, changed his domicile to Datu Abdullah Sangki (DAS), Maguindanao, when he ran and won as its Municipal Mayor in 2018. On October 7, 2021, while still the incumbent Mayor of DAS, he filed his Certificate of Candidacy (COC) for Governor of Sultan Kudarat for the May 2022 elections. He resigned from his mayoral post on November 15, 2021. Respondents filed petitions before the COMELEC to cancel his COC, alleging he falsely represented his residency in Sultan Kudarat.
Pax Ali countered that Lutayan remained his domicile of origin and he only temporarily resided in DAS to comply with the mayoral residency requirement, always intending to return. He presented evidence that starting July 2020, he began moving his personal effects to Lutayan, and by September 2020, all his belongings were there. He claimed daily returns to Lutayan from October 2020 onward, only going to DAS to perform mayoral duties, thus meeting the one-year residency requirement by the time he filed his COC.

ISSUE

Whether the COMELEC correctly cancelled Pax Ali Mangudadatu’s Certificate of Candidacy on the ground of material misrepresentation regarding his residency qualification for the position of Governor of Sultan Kudarat.

RULING

The dissenting opinion of Justice Lazaro-Javier argues that the petition should be granted and the COMELEC’s cancellation of the COC reversed. The legal logic centers on the proper application of domicile principles in election cases. For a successful change of domicile, three elements must concur: (1) bodily presence in the new locality, (2) an intention to remain there (animus manendi), and (3) an intention to abandon the old domicile (animus non revertendi). The dissent finds that Pax Ali sufficiently demonstrated these elements.
His domicile of origin in Lutayan was never lost; it was merely suspended during his mayoral term in DAS. His series of acts—physically moving his belongings to Lutayan starting mid-2020, his daily returns, and his eventual resignation as Mayor—constitute clear and definite conduct indicative of his intention to re-establish his domicile in Sultan Kudarat and abandon DAS. The dissent emphasizes that the question of residence is one of intention, and Pax Ali’s actions objectively manifested his intent to permanently return to his domicile of origin well before the one-year period preceding the election. Therefore, he did not commit a deliberate material misrepresentation in his COC warranting its cancellation under Section 78 of the Omnibus Election Code.