Grace Poe: Every foundling has right to dream

By: Yuji Vincent Gonzales - 9 years ago

Amid the disqualification cases being hurled against her over citizenship issues for being a foundling, presidential aspirant Sen. Grace Poe on Friday said the Philippine government should not abandon those who had already been abandoned by their parents.

“Ang isang batang inabandona ng kanyang mga magulang ay hindi rin dapat i-abandona ng ating pamahaalan … It would be very sad to think that a person or a child might have to endure the injustices and the cruel words that I’ve gone through in the past months,” Poe said in a statement.

READ: Poe lawyer: SET ruling ‘extinguishes’ Comelec case vs Grace | SET denies disqualification case vs Grace Poe

Poe said she would continue to protect the rights of foundlings like her to “ensure that their status in life does not limit their dreams.”

“Every child found in this country should have the right to dream. If that child grows up with integrity, and if the child is honest and has a sincere desire to serve us, he or she should be allowed to do so,” she said.

To prove that she is a natural-born Filipino citizen and eligible for public office, Poe, the adopted daughter of movie stars Susan Roces and Fernando Poe Jr., has undergone DNA tests with the descendants of the people who abandoned her at Jaro Cathedral in 1968. The DNAs, however, did not match. Her lawyer George Garcia said the results of three more DNA tests were still pending.

“I think it is also sad that a child who was abandoned or a person who does not know his parents should be compelled to present his parents, when they probably had no choice but to abandon that child in the first place,” Poe said.

While vowing to respect the rule of law, Poe said she would continue to fight the disqualification suits against her and exercise her right to seek legal redress “so that other foundlings who may want to become public servants would not have to experience the hardships she is going through.”

In a 5-4 vote, the Senate Electoral Tribunal recently junked the disqualification case against Poe filed by petitioner Rizalito David. The senator’s camp said they would file on Dec. 3 their memorandum for three other disqualification cases against Poe in the Commission of Elections.