For causing Poe-Binay rift, Toby Tiangco is sorry

United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) interim president Toby Tiangco on Friday expressed remorse for raising the residency issue against Sen. Grace Poe and triggering a word war between her and the camp of Vice President Jejomar Binay.

“I apologize for having caused damage to the friendship of the Poe and Binay families,” the Navotas representative said in a text message to media.

Tiangco, who stirred up a hornet’s nest after questioning Poe’s qualifications to run for higher office, said he would no longer talk about the issue to preserve the peace between the two camps.

Binay and Poe have emerged as the leading presidential contenders in 2016, although only the former has indicated his decision to run for the position.

“I will follow [the advice of the Vice President’s daughter, Makati Rep. Abigail Binay,] to stop speaking on the matter as this is an issue for the proper courts to decide,” said Tiangco, who insisted his earlier comments were his own and did not have the blessing of the Vice President.

Residency controversy

On Tuesday, Tiangco said Poe would not satisfy the 10-year residency rule for presidential and vice presidential candidates if she were to be elected next year, based on the certificate of candidacy (COC) she filed when she first ran for senator in 2013.

Poe then wrote in her COC that she had been a Philippine resident for six years and six months, which would mean, per Tiangco’s calculation, that her period of residency would have reached only nine years and six months in May 2016, six months short of the requirement.

But Poe said she had only erred on the side of prudence, as she counted only from the time she sold her house in the United States in 2006. In fact, she said, she could prove she had been residing in the Philippines as early as June 2005, which would fulfill the constitutional requirement.

Saying the issue was almost pushing her to run, Poe directed barbed words at Binay for allowing Tiangco to raise the issue, adding that she found it hard to believe the Vice President had no hand in it.

Lawyers and lawmakers from different political persuasions gave varying opinions on Poe’s qualification to run for President.

Personal attacks

The ensuing public discussion also turned personal, as it soon involved Binay’s past association with Poe’s adoptive father, Fernando Poe Jr., as well as the senator’s dual citizenship and background as a foundling, which could complicate her possible candidacy. The Constitution states that only “natural-born” Filipinos may rise to the presidency.

The heated back-and-forth between the Poe and Binay camps prompted Representative Binay to try to defuse tensions.

“This will accomplish nothing except to inflame the supposed conflict between my father and Senator Poe,” she told a news conference at her Makati residence.

Reading a prepared statement, the younger Binay said she wished to put a stop to the “heated and emotional” words between Binay’s allies and Poe over the questions raised by Tiangco.

“If Senator Poe so decides to run for President in 2016, my father warmly accepts and respects her decision. It is her right to run for any position,” Representative Binay said in Filipino. “This should not be cause for quarrel or conflict.”

She also suggested that the qualification issue be brought to the courts.