Petitioner claims Lani Cayetano not a Taguig-2nd District resident

The petitioner challenging Lani and Alan Peter Cayetano's twin candidacies for separate congressional districts in Taguig City claimed that he had evidence that proved Lani Cayetano was not a resident of the Second District where she intends to run as congresswoman.

In a Friday statement, Petitioner Leonides Buac Jr. alleged that the Taguig City condominium being claimed by Lani as her residence in her Certificate of Candidacy (COC) was not titled to her.

Buac's lawyer, Emil Marañon III, said that on Thursday, they submitted "game-changing and incriminating documentary evidence" on the matter, which the Cayetanos "have conveniently brushed aside and suppressed in both their answers."

In Memorandum SPA 13-197, they presented "Certificate of Title (CCT) no. 10558 issued by the Registry of Deeds of Taguig which covers Unit 352-A Two Serendra, Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City, the claimed residence of Alan and Lani Cayetano."

The document supposedly showed that a certain Lino Cayetano "from January 31, 2007 to the present owns Unit 352-A, and not the spouses Cayetano."

"Considering their wealth, power and stature, the fact that the spouses Cayetano do not own (or at the very least lease) their supposedly 'permanent' residences is evidence against their claim of permanence or legitimate 'intent to permanently settle' in Unit 352-A," Marañon argued.

Furthermore, the property was a "single bedroom unit," which Marañon said strengthened their position that the unit was a "'domicile of convenience' of the Cayetano family, conveniently claimed by Lani just to enable her to run in the Second District despite not living there."

In his statement, Marañon also pointed out that there were "strange, conflicting" claims involving Unit 352-A.

He wrote that the Cayetano couple jointly claimed the unit as their "family home" in spite of the same unit "strangely" being claimed by Taguig Representative Pia Cayetano in her sworn 2019 Certificate of Candidacy (CoC) she filed last October 16, 2018 for a seat at the Senate.

Marañon also said there was "no showing that the real owner, Lino Cayetano, has leased or sold the unit... to his siblings or to anyone, thus he is still presumed to be in possession of the same."

"These strange and conflicting claims show the collective lies of the siblings, albeit poorly-planned, again in furtherance of the Cayetano super dynasty," the lawyer wrote.

Conflicting dates, ‘strange’ admission

Maraños also claimed that a closer examination of documents submitted by Lani Cayetano to support her supposed residence in Barangay Fort Bonifacio would show otherwise.

"In her 2019 CoC, she claimed to have been residing at Unit 352-A Two Serendra since November 13, 2017. However, her Application for Transfer of Registration dated September 21, 2018, she declared that she has been residing at Unit 352-A since April 21, 2017," Marañon wrote.

"In her answer, Lani Cayetano presented a Certificate of Residency issued by Mr. Jorge Daniel S. Bocobo, the Punong Barangay of Barangay Fort Bonifacio, certifying she is a bona fide resident of 352-A Two Serendra since January 2018 only. Now the question is, which is which?" he added.

Maraños also pointed to Alan Peter's admission before the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in which "a rule that he applied to Lani strangely and most abnormally did not apply to himself."

"Alan Peter, strangely in his Answer before the Comelec, he admitted that he physically abandoned his former 'domicile of choice”' in 209 Paso St., Barangay Bagumbayan in the First District and moved to Unit 352-A Two Serendra, Barangay Fort Bonifacio in the Second District. He also admitted that with his wife, they constituted that same property owned by Lino Cayetano as their 'new' family home," the lawyer wrote.

"Alan’s convenient defense is that despite moving as a couple to Two Serendra, Barangay Fort Bonifacio, his 'intent to settle' remained in Barangay Bagumbayan, their previous family home. He made this claim while at the same time claiming that her wife Lani’s transfer constituted as change of domicile to Fort Bonifacio, but conveniently not in his case," he added.

Maraños claimed all the submissions "unequivocally show that the couple do not live in the Second District, and by their admissions, they also do not live in the First District." — Margaret Claire Layug/DVM, GMA News