PRESIDENT Aquino wants to know the reason behind the Supreme Court ruling. JOAN BONDOC
FERNANDO AIR BASE, Lipa City—The Supreme Court decision to allow Sen. Grace Poe to run for President will certainly boost her candidacy, but how long she can sustain her surge remains to be seen, President Aquino said on Wednesday.
Speaking at a news conference here, Mr. Aquino stressed that May 9, Election Day, would be the day of reckoning.
Voting 9-6 on Tuesday, the Supreme Court overturned two Commission on Elections (Comelec) orders disqualifying Poe from the presidential election on grounds that she is not a native-born Filipino and that she did not meet the 10-year residency requirement for candidates.
The court announced only the dispositive portion of its decision. The text of the ruling will be released later.
Poe celebrated her victory on Wednesday with her family and staff over barbecued chicken delivered to her campaign headquarters in Quezon City.
She said she had received calls from many political leaders who not only congratulated her but also offered to become her allies in the election.
“I think in the coming days they will come out,” Poe said. “I’m not saying there will be lots of them, but there are many.”
Doubtful durability
The President said the boon was expected, but he expressed doubt about Poe’s durability.
“Of course, [the Supreme Court decision] will boost her candidacy. How long can that be sustained? We cannot say, but at the end of the day I will adhere to what an elder taught me more than a decade ago: Do what you must do, focus on your task. Don’t fret [about] the things you cannot control,” Mr. Aquino said in response to a question about how the court’s ruling would affect the candidacy of the ruling Liberal Party (LP) presidential candidate, Mar Roxas.
Mr. Aquino said that like everyone else, he had yet to see the full decision of the Supreme Court, which granted Poe’s appeal to overturn the Comelec orders to disqualify her from the presidential race.
The President said he hoped the court’s decision would clarify issues raised in the cases against Poe.
Abandoned in a Catholic church in Jaro, Iloilo province, shortly after birth in 1968, Poe was adopted by movie actors Fernando Poe Jr. and Susan Roces. She never learned who her real parents were.
Poe studied in the United States and became a US citizen after marrying Filipino-American Neil Llamanzares.
Poe returned to the Philippines in 2004 to bury her adoptive father then decided to live here permanently in 2005. She reacquired her Filipino citizenship in 2006.
But it was only in 2010 that she renounced her US citizenship—to be able to accept her appointment by Mr. Aquino as head of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB).
Mr. Aquino said he wanted to know how the Supreme Court resolved the question of Poe’s going to a US consular official in 2011 to renounce her US citizenship when she was already head of the MTRCB at that time.
‘It’s better now’
Roxas, campaigning in Batangas on Wednesday, sought to ease fears that his allies would desert him now that the Supreme Court had cleared the way for Poe to proceed with her presidential candidacy.
“Well, it’s better that this has been settled to take away the legal questions regarding it,” Roxas told reporters.
As for fears that his allies might switch to Poe, Roxas said: “If they want to switch parties, well, thank you very much. It’s better for them to openly [jump ship] than do it secretly behind my back.”
Poe is tied with Vice President Jejomar Binay for the lead the presidential race in the voter preference polls. Roxas and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte are tied for second place, and Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago is raising the rear.
Belmonte
Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., LP vice chair and campaign manager, said the Supreme Court ruling would surely give Poe’s candidacy greater momentum, which would probably cost Binay “as there’s a big chunk of votes oscillating between them.”
There was no comment from Binay on Wednesday, but his daughter, Sen. Nancy Binay, said her father’s presidential run was “not dependent” on the Supreme Court decision.
“For us, we have already considered Poe’s presidential run [in our campaign]. On our part, it was prudent for us to factor in Senator Poe’s possible run,” she said.
Duterte had no comment on Poe’s Supreme Court victory, but earlier this week he said he was not afraid of losing the election as long as the winner was not Binay.
Campaigning in Antipolo City, Duterte said the Philippines faced a bleak future if Binay, who faced charges of graft and corruption in the Office of the Ombudsman, won the election.
‘Secret candidate’
Sen. Bam Aquino, nephew of the President, said the way the Supreme Court voted belied rumors that Poe was Mr. Aquino’s secret candidate.
Senator Aquino pointed out that two of the President’s appointees to the Supreme Court—Associate Justices Estella Perlas-Bernabe and Bienvenido Reyes—voted against Poe.
“The implication that the appointees of [the President] should have voted a certain way, the implication of that is that justices would follow the party line or politics. We need to give some respect to the Supreme Court. They will not necessarily vote based on who appointed them, but they will vote based on what they think is right,” he said. With reports from Gil C. Cabacungan, DJ Yap, Marlon Ramos, Christine O. Avendaño and Niña P. Calleja