Grace Poe dismisses talk she will be DQ’d

GRACE IN PAMPANGA Sen. Grace Poe, who is being supported by the Nationalist People’s Coalition, attends a public consultation with local officilas in Apalit, Pampanga province. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

The camp of Sen. Grace Poe yesterday dismissed speculations that the Supreme Court would rule to disqualify Poe from running for President for failing to meet the residency requirement, citing the comments of some justices during the oral arguments on the case.

Poe’s lawyer George Garcia said they were confident the high tribunal would set aside the Commission on Elections rulings canceling Poe’s certificate of candidacy for committing “material misrepresentations” regarding her citizenship and residency.

“Judging from the comments of the justices during the oral arguments, we believe they saw wisdom in our arguments against the Comelec rulings which are obviously premeditated and tainted by bias,” Garcia said in a statement.

The lawyer also criticized what he said were “attempts to preempt” the Supreme Court’s decision following reports that majority of the magistrates are inclined to disqualify Poe for failing to satisfy the 10-year residency requirement for presidential candidates.

Poe’s opponents are now harping on the residency issue because they failed to prove their claim that she was not a natural-born Filipino, Garcia said.

“Obviously, her opponents want to highlight the residency issue because they failed to prove their case against Senator Poe over the issue of citizenship,” he said.

He said the argument that the senator has not met the 10-year residency requirement was “also doomed to fail.”

“Senator Poe has already provided factual and legal bases to prove that she satisfied the 10-year residency requirement,” Garcia pointed out.

The Supreme Court is expected to come out with a decision anytime now as it has deemed the case submitted for decision after the parties filed their respective memorandums on Feb. 22.