Senator Grace Poe. FILE PHOTO
In deciding on the disqualification case against Sen. Grace Poe, some of the members Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) took into account not just purely legal matters, but other considerations such as the rights of children and foundlings and the will of the electorate, according to Sen. Cynthia Villar.
Villar was one of the five SET members who voted to junk the petition to unseat Poe from the Senate for not being a natural-born citizen.
Poe is a foundling and the identity of her parents is unknown.
There have been comments the SET ruling favoring Poe, who is running for President next year, was a political decision. Six members of the tribunal are senators, while three are Supreme Court justices.
“Even justices of the Supreme Court say that if they want the basis [of the decision] to be purely legal, then all the SET members should be justices and there should have been no senators. If there are senators, that means they don’t want to look at just purely legal matters but also at other considerations,” Villar said in a radio interview.
Villar said senators have their advocacies, such as how to treat children who are foundlings. There were also those who considered the fact that Poe was elected by the people.
“For politicians like us, the will of the people is very important because we were elected by the people. For us, it’s a big thing that the people have spoken and elected someone as senator,” she said.
But she added that her decision to dismiss the case against Poe also had legal basis.
She noted that the framers of the 1935 Constitution talked about foundlings and expressed the view that they should acquire the citizenship of the country where they were found.