Former Governor Joseph C. Cua has sought reconsideration of the COMELEC’S July 11, 2025 decision disqualifying him as candidate for Virac mayor due to his alleged non-Filipino citizenship.
Through counsel, he assailed the resolution of the Third Division as having been issued contrary to law and existing jurisprudence and for being procedurally infirm.
It may be recalled that two of the three commissioners voted to grant the disqualification petition filed by eventual winner Sinforoso Sarmiento Jr. on the grounds that Cua failed to have his Chinese citizenship on his birth certificate rectified and an allegedly unexplained year-long absence from the Philippines that cast doubt on his compliance with the residence requirement of his derivative naturalization.
In the motion, Cua said his Certificate of Naturalization and Identification Certificate is substantial proof of Philippine citizenship as it enjoys the presumption of regularity in its issuance and execution.
He added that the “unexplained” absence does not divest him of his Philippine citizenship and nor does his failure to rectify his birth certificate to indicate naturalization.
He pointed out that there is no discrepancy at all with the entry in the Certificate of Candidacy as it was accomplished on Oct. 7, 2024 when he was still 61 years old, having turned 62 on Oct. 16, 2024.
The motion emphasized that PD No. 836 has only two requirements for the grant pf Philippine citizenship: taking an oath of allegiance and issuance of the Certificate of Naturalization.
That same law did not provide that failure to reflect the act of naturalization in the birth certificate is one of the instances where the Certificate of Naturalization and the rights it conferred may be cancelled or divested.
“The annotation on the birth certificate of the legal truth of naturalization is only discretionary, not mandatory,” Cua stated, citing jurisprudence that a record of birth is not conclusive evidence of citizenship.
The petition, he stressed, should have been dismissed outright for being a collateral attack on citizenship which is a prohibited action, for being the wrong remedy, and for being filed out of time and for late payment of filing fees.