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692 Phil. 407
EN BANC
[ G.R. No. 198742, August 10, 2012 ]
TEODORA SOBEJANA-CONDON, PETITIONER, VS. COMMISSION ON
ELECTIONS, LUIS M. BAUTISTA, ROBELITO V. PICAR AND WILMA P.
PAGADUAN, RESPONDENTS.
DECISION
REYES, J.:
Failure to renounce foreign citizenship in accordance with the exact tenor of Section
5(2) of Republic Act (R.A.) No. 9225 renders a dual citizen ineligible to run for and thus
hold any elective public office.
The Case
At bar is a special civil action for certiorari[1] under Rule 64 of the Rules of Court
seeking to nullify Resolution[2] dated September 6, 2011 of the Commission on
Elections (COMELEC) en banc in EAC (AE) No. A-442010. The assailed resolution (a)
reversed the Order[3] dated November 30, 2010 of COMELEC Second Division
dismissing petitioner’s appeal; and (b) affirmed the consolidated Decision[4] dated
October 22, 2010 of the Regional Trial Court (RTC), Bauang, La Union, Branch 33,
declaring petitioner Teodora Sobejana-Condon (petitioner) disqualified and ineligible to
her position as Vice-Mayor of Caba, La Union.
The Undisputed Facts
The petitioner is a natural-born Filipino citizen having been born of Filipino parents on
August 8, 1944. On December 13, 1984, she became a naturalized Australian citizen
owing to her marriage to a certain Kevin Thomas Condon.
On December 2, 2005, she filed an application to re-acquire Philippine citizenship
before the Philippine Embassy in Canberra, Australia pursuant to Section 3 of R.A. No.
9225 otherwise known as the “Citizenship Retention and Re-Acquisition Act of 2003.”[5]
The application was approved and the petitioner took her oath of allegiance to the
Republic of the Philippines on December 5, 2005.
On September 18, 2006, the petitioner filed an unsworn Declaration of Renunciation of
Australian Citizenship before the Department of Immigration and Indigenous Affairs,
Canberra, Australia, which in turn issued the Order dated September 27, 2006
certifying that she has ceased to be an Australian citizen.[6]
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