If statement does not seem to work

Something may be wrong with my logic or the hosting server because when I tried it locally it works flawlessly!! however, when I upload it always execute the second statement no matter what the value of applicant_email_activated is??

It is driving me crazy please help!

<?php

 $applicant_email_activated  =   (int) 
 stripAndCleanHTML($applicant['applicant_email_activated']);

 if ($applicant_email_activated === 1) {

  include '../../includes/job_app/email_has_been_activated.inc.php';

 } elseif ($applicant_email_activated === 0) {

   include '../../includes/job_app/email_confirmed.php';

 }

 ?>