SET to focus on Grace Poe’s citizenship, not on residency—lawyer

Senator Grace Poe. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / NINO JESUS ORBETA

The residency of Senator Grace Poe is no longer an issue before the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET), Poe’s lawyer Alex Poblador said.

“It is no longer an issue because it has prescribed,” Poblador told reporters after the preliminary conference.

READ: Grace Poe says attendance in disqualification case ‘sentimental’

The SET will focus on the issue of citizenship with the subissue of renounciation.

On narrowing the issue before the SET, more or less the Tribunal has agreed to it.

“But it was the chair who asked the question,” Senator Vicente Sotto III, a member of the SET told reporters.

Sotto said they are looking at a decision on the case by November.

Aside from Sotto, other members of the SET include Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo de Castro, Associate Justice Arturo Brion, Senators Nancy Binay, Bam Aquino, Pia Cayetano, Loren Legarda and Cynthia Villar. Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio is the SET chair.

READ: Grace Poe to face disqualification case at Senate Electoral Tribunal

In Poe’s response before the SET, they said Rizalito David is barred from questioning Poe’s residency in connection with her eligibility to sit as Senator.

“Any attack on residency is prescribed for not having been brought within the required 10-day period (10-days after proclamation) under Rule 18 of the 2013 Rules of Procedure of the SET,” Poe’s reply affidavit stated.

At the same time, Poblador added that the case against Poe is only a plow to stop her from running for the 2016 Presidential elections.

“The petition has more to do with what will happen in 2016 rather than her current seat in the Senate,” Poblador added.