The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has rejected former Pasig City Mayor Maria Belen “Maribel” Andaya-Eusebio's second attempt at running for a congressional seat in Camarines Sur.

This, after the poll body junked her certificate of candidacy (COC) on the ground of “false material representation” after claiming she was eligible to run as a substitute candidate in the first legislative district of the province, which was actually no longer her domicile of choice.

In a unanimous resolution dated April 20, the Comelec’s First Division canceled Andaya-Eusebio’s COC after ruling that she was “not a bona fide resident” of the municipality of Ragay in the first district of Camarines Sur, and as such had “made a false material representation in her COC that she is eligible for the position she seeks to be elected to".

Signed by presiding Commissioner Socorro Inting and Commissioners Aimee Ferolino and Aimee Torrefranca-Neri, the resolution stopped Andaya-Eusebio from running as a substitute candidate for her brother, former House Majority Leader and Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr.,

It was Andaya Jr. who originally filed his candidacy for congressman in the province’s first district, but then decided at the last minute to run instead for governor of the province.

This was the second time that the Comelec had barred Andaya-Eusebio from seeking a congressional seat in Camarines Sur. The poll body canceled her COC for the 2019 midterm elections when she tried to run that time for a seat to represent the second legislative district by similarly making a false material representation that she was then a bona fide resident of that district’s municipality of Libmanan, which was supposed to be her domicile of choice.

“As such, her COC for the position of Member, House of Representatives for the First District of Camarines Sur should be cancelled,” the Comelec’s first division said in its April 20 resolution.

“Again, to successfully effect a change of domicile one must demonstrate an actual removal or an actual change of domicile; a bona fide intention of abandoning the former place of residence and establishing a new one and definite acts which correspond with the purpose .... The purpose to remain in or at the domicile of choice must be for an indefinite period of time; the change of residence must be voluntary; and the residence at the place chosen for the new domicile must be actual," it said.

Political observers believe that Andaya-Eusebio’s ill-fated candidacy could hurt the poll chances of her brother, gubernatorial bet Andaya Jr., and pave the way for a landslide victory of Luigi Renato ‘LRV’ Villafuerte, who is likewise running for governor of Camarines Sur.

Even before this COC debacle, Villafuerte was already leading Andaya Jr. by a wide margin in the gubernatorial race, according to the most recent pre-election survey by the prominent pollster Pulse Asia, which showed the former getting a third more than the combined votes of Andaya and their three other rivals for the post.

Pulse Asia’s latest survey showed Villafuerte being preferred by 59 percent of the voters, followed by Andaya Jr. who was picked by 35 percent of the respondents; Vice Governor and singer Imelda Papin, who was chosen by 4 percent; Ireneo Bongat Jr., 0.5 percent; and Richard Cabal, 0.3 percent.

Tsuyoshi Anthony Horibata, a congressional candidate in the first district, was the one who filed a petition before the Comelec seeking the cancellation of Andaya-Eusebio’s COC on the ground that her earlier COC for Pasig City mayor “constituted a concrete admission that she elected Pasig as her domicile".