GRACE POE
MANILA, Philippines — In a ruling seen to impact the status of Filipino foundlings, five senators elected on Tuesday to affirm the status of Sen. Grace Poe, a frontrunner in the Presidential elections, as a natural-born Filipino citizen.
Poe scored an early victory against questions on her qualifications ahead of the 2016 presidential race, winning the favor of the nine-member Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) on Tuesday in a close 5-4 vote junking the belated bid to disqualify her from the 2013 Senatorial elections.
Following a quick vote held at the exclusive Manila Polo Club on Tuesday, Poe’s colleagues in the chamber Senators Loren Legarda, Vicente “Tito” Sotto III, Cynthia Villar, Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino, and Pia Cayetano voted to junk the disqualification case filed by defeated 2013 senatorial candidate Rizalito David.
All Supreme Court magistrates in the body — Associate Justices Teresita Leonardo-De Castro, Arturo Brion, and the SET Chair Antonio Carpio – voted to disqualify Poe, along with Senator Nancy Binay.
Binay’s father, Vice President Jejomar Binay, is among contenders against Poe in the 2016 presidential race.
“It was a vote of 5-4, five dismissing the petition of Mr. David, and four concurring with the petition of Mr. David. In short, five voted to uphold the natural born citizenship of Sen. Mary Grace Poe Llamanzares, and four decided against that,” Legarda told reporters outside the Manila Polo Club past 2 p.m.
“That means, five voted and considered the fact that, as a foundling, Sen. Poe is natural-born,” said Legarda.
The case is separate from several cases against Poe pending before the Commission on Elections (Comelec), this time questioning her credentials to run for the presidency.
Asked how the SET ruling might impact other cases pending against his client, Poe’s lawyer George Garcia said: “The Comelec can make an independent consideration and decision not dependent on the SET decision.”
David has a pending case against Poe for alleged “material misrepresentation” in the 2013 senatorial race, while four other petitions want to disqualify her from the Presidential race and have her certificate of candidacy cancelled.
In the SET case, David’s camp is contending that Poe, who as a baby was found in 1968 at a church in Jaro, Iloilo, is stateless and is, thus, unqualified to hold public office.
Poe, an adopted daughter of the late actor and Presidential candidate Fernando Poe Jr., had acquired American citizenship in October 2001, 10 years after marrying Filipino-American citizen Neil Llamanzares.
She reacquired her Philippine citizenship in 2006 and in 2010 renounced her US citizenship upon her appointment as chair of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board.
David’s lawyer, Manuelito Luna, has told reporters the petitioner will file a motion for reconsideration. He could do so in 10 days or the ruling would become final, Legarda said.
Commenting on the ruling, Luna expressed confidence that the Supreme Court would eventually overturn the ruling once elevated on appeal.
“We’ll have to peruse the decision first, but in the event it’s a political decision and the senators disregarded the Constitution, then on the strength of the ruling in the Lerias case, the Supreme Court will set aside the decision,” Luna said.
In ruling on a 1991 case filed by petitioner Rosette Lerias against the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal and her rival for the Southern Leyte congressional seat at the time, Roger Mercado, the high court warned politicians against making political decisions in ruling on electoral protests, saying “they must resolve election controversies with judicial, not political, integrity.”
Should the petitioner file an appeal, SET must rule on the case and release a decision with finality before Dec. 10, the deadline for the printing of ballots for the 2016 elections, Legarda said..
“Assuming an MR (motion for reconsideration) would be filed within 10 days to today, then the set will have to meet again in the first week of December, before Dec. 10,” she said.
Legarda, meanwhile, underscored the importance of the ruling for Filipino foundlings: once rendered with finality, the SET decision would legitimize the status of abandoned children with no clear parentage in the Philippines as natural-born citizens.
“I think this will have both legal and political implications. And more important, the most important I think, this will have a great implication on foundlings. This issue goes beyond Grace Poe,” Legarda said.
“This is important for adopted children who do not know where they came from,” she said.
Sotto, who is running under Poe’s slate and also a guest candidate at Binay’s United Nationalist Alliance, echoed this and said via text messages: “All the foundlings and children in the orphanages triumphed!”
Media were barred from covering the proceedings, which took roughly two hours.
Other SET members approached at the gate did not speak upon Carpio’s directive.
Cayetano sent out a statement explaining her silence: “The case is still pending with us given that the petitioner has a right to file a motion for reconsideration.”
She and Legarda are expected to release separate opinions explaining their vote.
Legarda said the atmosphere was “very clam, short and friendly” during the voting, and that the members came in with their minds already made up.
“There were two decisions that were ready: one saying [Poe] is natural born, the other is just in case whatever happens. The two drafts either granted or dismissed the petition,” she said.
It did not say who drafted the two opinions.
“The chair said raise your hands, who votes to grant the petition, who votes to dismiss it. Then they routed the majority ruling, which we then signed,” she said.
She said there was no more debate during the proceedings.
“There was no debate unlike in the Senate. The lunch was longer than the discussion. In short, there was no need for a debate,” said Legarda. SFM