Movie and TV stars Charlene Gonzalez-Muhlach and Aga Muhlach attend a
Liberal Party gathering in Quezon City last August. – Photo courtesy of
Inquirer
A JUDGE in Bicol has ordered the exclusion of actor Aga Muhlach and his
wife Charlene from the voters’ list of San Jose, CamSur, endangering his
candidacy for Congress.
In a 13-page ruling, Judge Noel Paulite ordered that the names of
Muhlach and his wife be stricken off the list of voters in Barangay San Juan,
San Jose, CamSur, after they failed to comply with the six-months
residency requirement for registered voters.
The actor is running for congressman in CamSur’s fourth congressional
district.
He will be up against Felix William “Wimpy” Fuentebella, son of
last-term Deputy House Speaker Arnulfo Fuentebella.
In his order, Paulite said “respondents failed to comply with the
six-months residency requirement”.
Paulite said Mayor Antonio Chavez had revoked his “affirmation of the
spouses’ alleged residency” in San Jose while Cesar B Chavez, the owner of the
house that the Muhlachs leased, asked that the lease be terminated.
“Oddly, though, the Muhlach family was rarely seen occupying the house.
As a matter of fact, it is but proper to construe that they almost never
resided therein,” Paulite said.
Election lawyer Romulo Macalintal, Muhlach’s counsel, said they would
bring the case to the Court of Appeals.
“I haven’t seen the ruling but we will file a petition for certiorari
at the Court of Appeals and secure a temporary restraining order (TRO) in order
to stop the implementation of [Paulite’s] order,” Macalintal said.
He said Paulite’s ruling does not mean that Muhlach’s name would not be
included in the ballot that would be printed by the Commission on Elections.
“That won’t happen because the order is not yet final and executory.
Unless the Court of Appeals does not issue a TRO, but we are confident that the
appellate court will rule in our favor,” Macalintal said.
“There is a similar case involving the son of former Zamboanga del
Norte Rep. Romeo Jaslosjos, where I was also the lawyer, and we won in the
Court of Appeals,” he added.
The Muhlachs had asked Paulite to inhibit himself from the case because
the Fuentebellas were supposed to have been instrumental in the judge’s
appointment to his post.
“[That] is unfounded and a misconception … to entertain such erroneous
notion is a pathetic fallacy,” Paulite said. - Inquirer
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