Aquino admits being confused over Poe’s citizenship, residency

President Aquino shows reporters a dog eared copy of the Comelec decision cancelling Sen Grace Poe’s certificate of candidacy for President. The President said he has read the 34-page document three or four times– complete with lines highlighted in green as seen by the Inquirer–yet he admits he remains confused over Poe’s predicament. NIKKO DIZON/PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER

ROME—President Aquino on Thursday admitted being confused about the predicament of Sen. Grace Poe, but said he saw the “logic” in the decision of the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) Second Division to disqualify her from next year’s presidential election.

Speaking to reporters before he left for Manila on Thursday afternoon (Friday night in Manila), President Aquino said he had read the Comelec Second Division’s 34-page decision three times but he was “still not clear on some points.”

“How do I say this? Perhaps if she was clearer, Senator Poe, on what she wanted to do [before] maybe there won’t be this talk from the start. What does that mean, right? I will tell you where the [points of] confusion here are,” Mr. Aquino said, holding a dog-eared copy of the Second Division’s decision with some lines highlighted in green.

The Comelec Second Division voted 3-0 to cancel Poe’s certificate of candidacy on Dec. 1, granting the petition by former Government Service Insurance System lawyer Estrella Elamparo, who alleged that the senator was not a natural-born Filipino and did not meet the 10-year residency requirement for presidential candidates.

Poe said she would appeal the decision to the full election commission.

Face value

Mr. Aquino said that when he was pursuing Poe to be the vice presidential candidate of the Liberal Party, the senator told him that her lawyers “had studied the matter and they were ready to answer any and all questions” about her citizenship.

“I took it at face value,” Mr. Aquino said.

The President said that when he and Poe discussed the question of her citizenship and residency, “it wasn’t as detailed as it was presented” in the Second Division’s decision, such as the numerous trips she made to the Philippines and back to the United States in 2009.

Mr. Aquino was asked if he was not glad that Poe rejected his invitation and that the administration party went for its second choice, Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo?

“Well, I really like Leni Robredo as a candidate. I like the things that she’s been saying. She is of the same fold without an iota of divergence,” Mr. Aquino replied.

The support for Roxas and Robredo “is more total … as opposed to we support you 85 percent or 90 percent. I have more confidence to say that the present lineup I can fully support them without an iota of doubt or uncertainty,” he said.

“I think I see the logic in what is being said here,” Mr. Aquino said, referring to the Comelec Second Division’s decision.

“There are actions that seemed you are a Philippine citizen, then there are actions that seemed like you are an American citizen when you used your (US) passport because that was in 2009, when you had several trips,” he said.

Numerous trips to US

Mr. Aquino said he was also surprised at the number of trips Poe made to the United States.

“I was surprised at the number of trips in 2009. But perhaps the explanation there was, we were all cleaning up because we would be living in the Philippines permanently—I don’t know … . There’s clarity and, at the same time, it leads to so many more questions,” he said.

Among the points in the decision noted by the President was the Bureau of Immigration, through then Commissioner Alipio Fernandez Jr., granting Poe’s petition on July 18, 2006, for reacquisition of Philippine citizenship where it said she was a “former citizen of the Republic of the Philippines being born to Filipino parents and is presumed to be a natural-born Philippine citizen.”

Mr. Aquino said that in 2006, it appeared that Poe’s citizenship was clear.

“But since Senator Poe is a foundling and who her parents are have not been established, how do you establish that her parents are Filipino? I think that has not been proven. So you ask, was the [immigration bureau’s] appreciation at that time correct? Was it wrong? Questions like this worsen the situation,” Mr. Aquino said.

US passport

Then there was the matter of Poe using her US passport “at a time when she took her oath in the Philippines,” he said.

The President’s confusion does not end there. He said he wondered if and when Poe used her dual citizenship and her US passport.

“In the American oath [of allegiance] you said, all allegiance and fidelity. So is that still valid at that time. But then again in 2010, I appointed her and she was supposed to have renounced her [US] citizenship, but there was an action with the [American] consul a year after, according to this [Comelec Second Division] document,” he said.

Mr. Aquino said he had repeatedly asked Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa, Justice Secretary Benjamin Caguioa and other top government lawyers to brief him on the question of Poe’s citizenship.

“We’ve gone back and forth on the different points and I still ask them many questions,” he said.

The President said, however, that there were “several avenues” Poe could take, including going to the Supreme Court, to resolve her citizenship problem.

Originally posted: 05:19 PM December 5th, 2015