Residency raps vs Poe junked
SET decides to concentrate on citizenship issue; Grace to announce 2016 plans soon
The Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) yesterday decided to junk the challenge on Sen. Grace Poe’s residency in the Philippines and concentrate, instead, on the issue involving her citizenship.
After a preliminary hearing, the SET and the parties involved in the disqualification case all agreed to the suggestion of SET chair and Supreme Court (SC) Senior Justice Antonio T. Carpio to just tackle the citizenship issue because the
residency issue had prescribed.
Under the rule, a disqualification case on the issue of residency must be filed within 10 days from the date of proclamation of a candidate.
With the agreement, the oral argument set for September 21 will focus on whether or not Sen. Poe is a naturalborn citizen. Her residency and citizenship were challenged by losing 2013 senatorial candidate Rizalito David in his complaint.
The agreement was confirmed by Poe’s lawyer Alexander Poblador who accompanied the senator during the preliminary hearing at the SC yesterday.
Poe’s 2016 decision
Poe, in an interview after the hearing, said her decision whether or not to run for a higher office in the May, 2016, election will be announced very soon.
“Sinasabi ko naman sa aking mga kababayan na ito’y isang kunsiderasyon ng pinag-iisipan ko at malapit na rin yan,” Poe replied when told of the observation of Senate President Franklin M. Drilon, Liberal Party (LP) vice chairman, that she might also run for president next year.
Despite hurdling the residency issue, Poe’s camp insisted yesterday that the disqualification case filed against the lady senator before the SET is a mere ploy to prevent her from seeking higher office in the scheduled May, 2016, national elections.
“The case was directed not so much as to her election to the Senate as to the possibility of her seeking higher office in 2016, and that the petition has more to do with what will happen in 2016 rather than her current seat in the Senate,” Poblador said.
He pointed out that Poe is naturalborn Filipino and had met the residency requirement when she ran for the Senate more than two years ago.
Sufficient proof
“We have sufficient evidence to prove that Senator Poe met the citizenship and residency requirements for congressional candidates when she ran and won in the 2013 midterm elections,” he said.
He said the complainant is guilty of forum shopping since he filed the disqualification case also with the Commission on Elections.
Poblador pointed out that the petition must be filed within 10 days after proclamation. “Since Senator Poe was proclaimed on May 16, 2013, those who would want to question her qualifications had only until May 26, 2013 to file a petition against her,” he said.
“Our answer to the David petition contains grounds for summary dismissal. It’s been two years since Senator Poe assumed office and yet it is only now that the case is being filed,” he stressed.
Carpio and parties involved in the disqualification case against Poe took cognizant of this legal requirement prompting them to all agree to junk the residency issue.
Poblador added that the Philippine Constitution, the domestic laws, and international laws favor protecting foundlings.
Thus, he said, a foundling like Poe who was found in the Philippines is presumed to be Filipino. “The presumption is that Senator Poe is a natural-born Filipino and the one who alleges the contrary must prove that she is not,” he added.
Sen. Poe, a foundling, was abandoned outside the Jaro Church in Iloilo in 1968. She was adopted by celebrity couple Fernando Poe Jr. and Susan Roces in 1974. The adoption decree was registered with the Iloilo Civil Registrar in 1980, Poblador said.
He said that Sen. Poe is presumed a natural-born citizen.
“She was in fact elected senator and under our law there is a presumption that she was regularly elected, that the law was followed when she was elected,” he also said.
Back to original citizenship
Poblador also said that Poe, who acquired US citizenship, regained her original status as natural-born Filipino, as if she never lost it, after she took a new oath of allegiance to the Philippines in 2006.
“The status she reacquired when she repatriated was her status from birth, which is natural-born Filipino,” he added.
Poe returned to the country after the death in 2004 of her father.
Poblador said several acts showed that Poe intended to return and remain in the Philippines for good, such as: returning to the country in the first half of 2005; enrolling her children in local schools in June, 2005; purchasing a property in late 2005; construction of her family home in Quezon City in early 2006; and sale of their Virginia home in 2006.
In an interview, Sen. Poe said her attendance in the preliminary hearing was “sentimental” as she recalled that the citizenship of her late father, action-star Fernando Poe Jr., was also questioned before the SC when he decided to seek the presidency in 2004. The SC ruled in favor of the late movie actor.
“Ito po ay replay ng nangyari sa aking tatay. Medyo sentimental nga po ang aking pagdalo ngayon (My presence in the hearing is a bit sentimental as this is a replay of what happened to my father),” Poe told journalists covering the SC.
Aside from Carpio, SC justices who are members of the SET are: Teresita J. Leonardo-de Castro and Arturo D. Brion. Their counterparts in the Senate are Senators Loren Legarda, Pia Cayetano, Bam Aquino, Cynthia Villar, and Nancy Binay. All were present during the preliminary hearing.