3 Poe DQ cases seen to reach SC

Sen. Grace Poe FILE PHOTO

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) hopes to resolve the three disqualification cases against Sen. Grace Poe not later than mid-December.

But that doesn’t mean an all-clear for Poe, as her challengers, if they lose in the Comelec, are expected to raise their cases to the Supreme Court.

Comelec Commissioner Arthur Lim on Wednesday said the agency would not waste time in handling the cases, two of which are questioning Poe’s citizenship.

The third case charges that she does not meet the 10-year residency rule for presidential candidates.

“Consistent with due process, with the requirements of fair play, and with the requirements of hearing, we’ll study all issues and [act] based on evidence,” Lim told reporters after appearing at a meeting called by the House suffrage and electoral reforms committee.

Lim said the Comelec would try to resolve the cases within November, or, failing that, not later than the middle of December.

SET case

Speaking at the committee meeting, Lim said the Comelec’s law department had recommended suspension of proceedings on Poe’s disqualification cases because a petition questioning her citizenship was already pending on the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET).

That case was filed by Kapatiran Party’s Rizalito David, who claims that Poe is not a natural-born Filipino because she was abandoned after birth and her parents remain unknown.

Lim said the SET case posed a “prejudicial question” on the Comelec, which should decide whether to proceed with the three cases against Poe or wait until the SET resolved David’s challenge to the senator’s citizenship.

“The decision of the [full commission] is to study this issue of prejudicial question, subject this to a judicious approach, and study it,” Lim said.

But for the time being, the Comelec will hold a hearing on Nov. 3 to allow Poe to respond to the cases against her or, possibly, invoke the prejudicial question herself, Lim said.

The three cases in the Comelec were brought by former Department of Justice prosecutor Estrella Elamparo, former Sen. Francisco Tatad and De La Salle University professor Antonio Contreras.

Elamparo and Tatad are also questioning Poe’s citizenship, while Contreras is challenging  Poe’s Philippine residency.

Comelec Chair Andres Bautista said last week that Elamparo’s petition had been raffled off to the Second Division and the petitions brought by Tatad and Contreras might be consolidated with hers.

Poe is the front-runner in the latest voter preference polls for the 2016 presidential election, leading the ruling Liberal Party’s Mar Roxas and the opposition United Nationalist Alliance’s Vice President Jejomar Binay.

Poe says she is confident of hurdling the challenges to her candidacy, which her camp blames on her rivals. TVJ

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