Don Salvador Benedicto Mayor Marxlen de la Cruz yesterday said he is set to ask the Commission on Elections to disqualify lawyer Jose Max Ortiz from running against him in the May 13 polls in the light of a recent court decision.

Judge Francisco Pando, of the Municipal Court in Cities Branch 4 in Bacolod City, in a decision dated March 8, ruled that Ortiz is not a resident of Barangay Kumaliskis, Don Salvador Benedicto, in Negros Occidental, and therefore, disqualified to vote in the town in the May polls.

The judge denied the petition of Ortiz to be included as voter of DSB.

The court finds that the respondent, the DSB Election Registration Board, did not commit grave abuse of discretion when it denied Ortiz’s application for the transfer of the registration to vote to the town, the decision said.

The court is of the considered view that, due to the non-compliance with the residency requirement prescribed for the acquisition of a new domicile by choice, Ortiz is ineligible as a voter of Don Salvador Benedicto, it also said.

De la Cruz yesterday said if Ortiz is not a registered voter of DSB, he is not eligible to run for mayor of the town.

Ortiz could not be reached for comment as of press time.*CPG

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