A senatorial aspirant who lost in the 2013 elections failed to file a petition to unseat Senator Grace Poe because he did not have the filing fee.
Rizalito David had wanted to file a quo warranto petition before the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) against Poe on Wednesday over her citizenship and on being a foundling.
A quo warranto petition is a challenge to someone’s right to hold a certain office or position.
But the SET official who attended to David informed him he has to pay a P50,000 filing fee.
David was taken aback when told to pay a fee. “I don’t have P50,000 right now,” he said.
He then turned furious and said, “This is the cost of justice!”
David instead turned to the media and asked the public, even the reporters, to chip in for him to raise P50,000 filing fee.
“Nanawagan ako para macorrect ang ongoing injustice na ito. Kung gustong magcontribute ng tao na tig-P1,000 o P500 para mabuo ang P50,000, please help me,” David said.
David said Poe, who topped the senatorial race in 2013, cannot retain her seat as Senator because she is not a natural-born citizen.
He said Poe is a “foundling” or stateless and could be unseated as a member of the Senate for not being a “natural-born Filipino” as required by the Constitution.
Poe was abandoned in a church in Jaro, Iloilo province before she was adopted by the late action star Fernando Poe, Jr. (FPJ) and actress Susan Roces.
“It takes a lot of courage to do this. I’m going up against a popular person,” David said.
“She was a foundling. Tapos naging Filipino citizen by virtue of the adoption. But the adoption does not accord to her a natural born status,” David added.
He added that Poe had used her American passport until 2009.
He appealed to the public to support him in his petition.
“Nakikiusap ako sa mga mamamayan. Hindi porke napaka-popular ang senador katulad ni Grace Poe eh nakakalimutan na natin ang rule of law,” David said
David had also wanted to leave copies of his petition in the SET, but the official did not allow him.
“Mabigat siya kaya iwan ko nalang sa inyo. Hindi ko na-envelope kasi wala na akong pera,” David said.
David ran and lost in the 2013 elections under the Ang Kapatiran party.
Poe has said she had renounced her American citizenship when she served in public office. Poe was head of the Movie Television Review and Classification Board before she topped the 2013 midterm elections.
Former Negros Oriental Rep. Jacinto Paras was the one who informed reporters about David’s filing.
Paras, who supported FPJ in the 2004 presidential race, had bragged in a press conference that he would be the first to file a disqualification case against Poe should she decide to run for a higher post in 2016, citing the residency and citizenship issues earlier raised against her by some officials of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA).
Paras has also said Senator Poe seems “ambitious” in seeking higher office, unlike FPJ who was more reluctant in the 2004 presidential race.
David said he and Paras had been talking and exchanging documents in a bid to unseat Poe.
Issues had been raised against Poe since she emerged the most popular president and vice president bet in the opinion polls.
Residency
Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco, president of Vice President Jejomar Binay’s United Nationalist Alliance, has also raised the issue of residency against Poe.
In an earlier press conference, Tiangco said Poe would not have been a resident of the Philippines in time for the 2016 elections.
The Constitution requires president and vice president bets to be a resident for 10 years prior to the elections.
Tiangco said Poe’s certificate of candidacy (COC) for senator in 2013 shows her residency in the country is at six years and six months prior to the May 2013 elections.
By May 2016, Poe would have stayed in the country for nine years and six months, still short of the 10-year residency requirement in the Constitution, Tiangco added.
UNA Secretary General JV Bautista had also raised Poe’s ineligibility to run because she is a foundling and not a natural born citizen.
But some solons had taken the cudgels for Poe before, saying a foundling cannot be considered stateless.
“In the case of a foundling, it’s easy to say, ‘How do we know?’ But one rule of thumb is you cannot be a person who does not have a citizenship. You cannot be stateless. There are international conventions to that effect,” House Minority Leader Ronaldo Zamora has said in an earlier press conference.
He noted that Poe “was found practically within hours of being born.”
“How can you say she was a citizen of another country? The [baby was found still with its mother’s blood]. How can a foundling be stateless? What specific country is that? Clearly, the Philippines. If she was not born here, how could she have arrived here?” Zamora asked.
For her part, Poe said the COC stated “residence in the Philippines before May 2013,” and did not say “by May 13, or on May 2013.”
She said she only went back to the Philippines in 2005 or in the aftermath of the death of her father FPJ. She said she meant her physical presence in the country was only six years at the time of the filing of COC.