Poe lawyers dismiss speculations of disqualification

Lawyers of Sen. Grace Poe have dismissed the speculations that she will be disqualified from the presidential race for failure to meet the 10-year residency requirement.

“Judging from the comments of the justices during the oral arguments, we believe they saw wisdom in our arguments against the [Commission on
Elections’] rulings which are obviously premeditated and tainted by bias,” Poe’s counsel George Garcia said in a statement on Thursday.

He slammed attempts to preempt the high court’s decision amid rumors that majority of the magistrates were out to disqualify Poe.

“Obviously, her opponents want to highlight the residency issue because they failed to prove their case against Senator Poe over the issue of citizenship,” Garcia said. “In fact, even the justices provided the legal bases that foundlings are natural-born Filipinos during the extensive oral arguments.”

Garcia reiterated there were enough evidence and legal bases to show that the senator was able to satisfy the residency requirement.

The high court on March 8 will tackle Poe’s consolidated petition during their en banc session.

It is expected to come out with a decision anytime as it has deemed the case submitted for decision after the parties filed their respective memoranda on Feb. 22.