LP man vouches for Carpio fairness on Grace Poe’s case

A Liberal Party (LP) stalwart on Tuesday defended Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, who is under fire for declaring during the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) first round of oral arguments that Sen. Grace Poe, as a foundling, could only be considered as a “naturalized” and not a “natural-born” citizen.

At the Ugnayan sa Batasan forum, Iloilo City Rep. Jerry Treñas said Carpio should ignore calls for him to inhibit from the disqualification case against Senator Grace Poe.

Treñas described Carpio as one of the “most respected” high court justices, saying he believed the justice would decide fairly on Poe’s case.

Former Justice Secretary Silvestre Bello III had blasted Carpio for being “biased” against Poe, noting that Carpio’s founding partner in a prominent law firm, former Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz Jr., was the lawyer of Poe’s rival, LP standard-bearer Mar Roxas.

Aside from his ties to Roxas’ lawyers, it was noted that Carpio also voted to disqualify Poe’s father, the late Fernando Poe Jr., in 2004.

“He (Carpio) was only asking a question which the lawyer of Sen. Grace Poe should answer. Even in the SC, the justices usually ask pointed questions to guide the court and in this case, to guide the SET in its decision making process… I’m just surprised why everyone got so excited about it,” Treñas said.

“I have been a litigation lawyer for 19 years. Judges ask any question under the sun and it does not mean that they’re going to decide the case against you,” added Treñas.

Treñas said critics should cut Carpio some slack because the disqualification cases of Poe and her father were different.

“Let us give Justice Carpio the decency he requires,” Treñas said.

“Sen. Grace Poe’s political opponents are concerned about winning, not leading. They forget this election is about the lives of 100 million citizens, not about the citizenship of one person.”

A Poe supporter, Malabon Rep. Jaye Lacson-Noel, described the disqualification case filed against Poe as “artificial” because it was filed more than two years after she won as senator in 2013.

“These charges are artificial” as these are only being brought up now that she is the front-runner in presidential polls. These were never even mentioned when she ran for senator,” said Noel, whose husband, former An Waray Rep. Florencio Noel, is a supporter of the team-up of Poe and Senator Francis Escudero.