A Quezon City court has ordered delisted from the voter’s registry the name of a daughter of tobacco magnate and Philippine Airlines chairman Lucio Tan who is running for congressman in the city’s first district.

The seven-page decision issued last week by Metropolitan Trial Court Judge Augustus C. Diaz declared Vivienne Khao Tan, 40, an American citizen when she registered as voter on October 26, 2009 in Barangay Sto. Domingo, QC.

The court order has also been submitted as evidence in a disqualification case filed against Tan, 40, before the Commission on Elections.

Ms. Tan’s name was ordered stricken from the list of voters of Barangay Sto. Domingo, QC after Judge Diaz ruled that she is ineligible as qualified voter for being an American citizen at the time she filed her application for voter’s registration on October 26, 2009.

The court upheld the contention of a petition for exclusion of a voter from the list that was filed by Rep. Vincent “Bingbong” P. Crisologo, who is seeking re-election as congressman and was set to face Ms. Tan in the 2010 congressional race in QC’s District I.

Despite posting high poll survey ratings of at least 71 percent last December, Crisologo said he has decided to seek Ms. Tan’s disqualification as voter and congressional candidate because “glaring violations of law are being committed” in her desire to seek a public office.

The court said Ms. Tan cannot be considered a Filipino citizen at the time she sought to be registered as voter because she took her allegiance as Filipino on December 1, 2009, 36 days after the application for registration was filed before the Comelec.

The fact that she took an Oath of Allegiance on December is a clear manifestation of “her lack of Philippine citizenship upon her registration” the court said.

“A Fiilipino citizen would not be required to perform an oath of Allegiance to affirm his or her Filipino citizenship, because affirmation is no longer necessary because the citizenship has always bee in his or her possession,” Judge Diaz explained.