Poe camp hit over inhibition bid

Grace Poe FACEBOOK PHOTO

It’s an act of desperation.

So said the lawyer pursuing one of the disqualification cases against Sen. Grace Poe as he vowed to block Poe’s move for the inhibition of three Supreme Court justices from hearing the petitions she had filed in the high tribunal.

Manuelito Luna, counsel for former Sen. Kit Tatad, one of four petitioners who sought Poe’s disqualification at the Commission on Elections (Comelec), said the three high court magistrates—Associate Justices Antonio Carpio, Teresita Leonardo-de Castro and Arturo Brion—may not be prevented from reviewing the rulings of the Comelec canceling Poe’s certificate of candidacy for the 2016 presidential election.

‘Unfounded, ridiculous’

Poe is “desperate knowing that her chances of reversal are nil to none,” said Luna who intends to file a comment and opposition to Poe’s plea on Jan. 4, the first working day of the new year.

“We will strongly oppose [Poe’s petition] through a comment and motion/opposition. Poe’s move for the recusal of the three justices is unfounded and ridiculous since they cannot be prevented from reviewing the Comelec cases now in the high court,” Luna said in a statement.

SET dissent cited

Poe’s camp had filed on Tuesday petitions seeking to prevent Carpio, De Castro and Brion from participating in the high court deliberation on her plea to reverse the Comelec rulings disqualifying her from the presidential race for lack of citizenship and residency.

She sought the justices’ recusation a day after the high court granted her two temporary restraining orders (TROs), which stopped the Comelec from enforcing her disqualification. The TROs were issued just hours after Poe’s plea was filed, took effect immediately and would stand “until further orders from the court.”

In seeking the three justices’ inhibition, Poe cited their dissent to the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) ruling that deemed her to be a natural-born Filipino, thus upholding her qualification to run in the 2013 senatorial race.

Carpio, De Castro and Brion were among four SET members who had voted against Poe in the case filed by a defeated 2013 senatorial candidate, Rizalito David, seeking to unseat Poe from the Senate. The fourth who dissented was Sen. Nancy Binay, whose father, Vice President Jejomar Binay, is running for President.

Five senators in the SET voted to uphold Poe’s natural-born-Filipino status, thus affirming her election into the chamber.

In her plea for inhibition, Poe cited the justices’ “prejudgment,” as they had decided in the SET case that she was not natural-born, a matter that is “also squarely an issue” in her petitions against the Comelec resolutions ordering her disqualification.

‘Out of this world’

Luna said he would also oppose Poe’s move to consolidate her certiorari pleas against the Comelec resolutions for her disqualification with that of David’s appeal for the high court to reverse the SET ruling.

Poe filed the consolidation petition on Tuesday, along with the inhibition plea.

“Consolidation of the cases is not feasible inasmuch as the cases and assailed resolutions emanated from two distinct and independent constitutional bodies. Poe is desperate knowing that her chances of reversal are nil to none,” Luna said.

He said the two cases are of a different “nature and eventualities.”

“Cases emanating from two distinct and independent constitutional bodies cannot be heard, considered and resolved as one. There is no rule or jurisprudential norm allowing such move. It’s borne out of desperation and plainly out of this world,” Luna said.

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