Senator Grace Poe and Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero visit Ipil, Sibugay Zamboanga. HANDOUT PHOTO
One of the lawyers pushing for the disqualification of Sen. Grace Poe remains confident that the Supreme Court will decide against her presidential bid, saying such outcome may be expected if the magistrates make a strict reading of the Constitution.
Manuelito Luna, counsel for former Sen. Francisco “Kit” Tatad, on Friday issued his brave forecast of a victory, citing the high court’s history of making a literal application of Constitutional provisions in relevant cases.
“I can sense that our position will be upheld by the Supreme Court. This is so because in constitutional cases, the court would more often than not literally apply the Constitution,” said Luna in a statement.
He said the court usually did not prefer “sophisticated theories of interpretation” of the Constitution.
“The reason for this is that a literal reading of the text of the fundamental law is the safer approach … the Constitution being a people’s document than a lawyer’s document,” the lawyer read.
Luna made the statement in response to the Poe camp’s own prediction of a win at the high court, with lawyer George Garcia saying the justices “saw wisdom in our arguments against the Comelec (Commission on Elections) rulings, which are obviously premeditated and tainted by bias.”
The Supreme Court is expected to soon make a decision on Poe’s challenge to the Comelec’s orders barring her from seeking the presidency. The poll body had ruled that Poe committed “material misrepresentation” in declaring in her 2015 certificate of candidacy for President that she had both the citizenship and residency qualifications to run.
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