Comelec cancels Edu Manzano’s bid for Congressional seat

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Monday canceled the Certificate of Candidacy (CoC) of actor Edu Manzano, who is running for a congressional seat for the lone district of San Juan City.
The 15-page Comelec Second Division decision reads that the poll body has granted the petition filed by Sophia Patricia Gil, a San Juan City resident, in November 2018 which claimed that Manzano misrepresented himself by declaring that he is a Filipino citizen when he filed his CoC for the May Midterm elections.
“Respondent is not a Filipino citizen at the time he filed his COC for a member of the House of Representatives for the lone district of San Juan City,” Comelec stated in its decision released on May 6.
It added that Manzano committed false material representation of his citizenship, prompting the poll body to cancel his COC.
Comelec said Manzano failed to re-acquire his Filipino citizenship at the time that he filed his COC in October last year.
Manzano lost his Filipino citizenship when he served as a member of the United States Army from 1973 to 1977, according to Section 1-4 of the Commonwealth Act (CA) No. 63.
Comelec explained that the “C.A. No. 63 is clear and explicit in stating that by rendering service to, or accepting commission in, the armed forces of a foreign country, a Filipino will lose his Philippine citizenship.”
Manzano became Makati vice mayor in 1998. He lost, however, when he took a mayoral bid in 2001. He had also run in the vice presidential and senatorial race in 2010 and 2016, respectively.