Comelec ruling on Poe ‘issued with grave abuse of discretion’ – lawyer

The lawyer of Senator Grace Poe on Tuesday urged the Supreme Court to reverse the two decisions of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) that cancelled her certificate of candidacy (COC) and allow her to run for president in the May presidential election.

During the oral argument at the SC Tuesday, Atty. Alexander Poblador said the Comelec committed “grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction” when it ruled that she committed “material misrepresentations” in her COC for president regarding her citizenship and residency.

“The Comelec decisions should be reversed for having been issued with grave abuse of discretion,” Poblador said.

Poblador said Poe “acted in good faith” when she stated in her COC that she was a natural-born citizen and had been a resident of the Philippines for “10 years and 11 months” by the elections of May 9, 2016.

Contrary to Comelec’s claim, Poblador said there was “no deliberate intent” on the part of Poe to mislead the electorate on her citizenship and residence.

He maintained that Poe, although a foundling, is a natural-born citizen based on the generally acceptable principle of international law which presumes foundlings to be natural-born citizens of the country where they were found.

Poblador said Poe’s accusers failed to establish a prima facie case that her parents were not Filipinos since the “burden of proof is in the first instance with the party who initiates action.”

“The burden of proof is on the [accusers] because [Poe] is presumed natural-born. Foundlings are Filipinos because their parents are presumed Filipinos. She is a natural-born Filipino,” Poblador said.

At the same time, Poblador said Poe had fulfilled the 10-year residency requirement for presidential candidates, having been a resident of the country since May 2005.

“The petitioner (Poe) submits that on 24 May 2005 she returned to the country for good and physically abandoned her U.S. residence,” Poblador said.

Based on records, Poe began to settle permanently in the Philippines on May 24, 2005. After that, she enrolled her children to local schools in June 2005, purchased a property in the late 2005, constructed her family home in Quezon City in early 2006, and sold their U.S. property in 2006.