Disqualification cases vs Poe not very damaging – Speaker

MANILA, Philippines – Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. believes that the disqualification cases against Sen. Grace Poe are not likely to make a deep dent on her presidential campaign as her political opponents would like to think.

“I don’t know but the damage is not as bad as some people might think,” he told reporters yesterday at the House of Representatives when asked whether the suits were harming Poe’s campaign.

Belmonte said the cases are still being heard even as the petitioners come from varied backgrounds.

The legal process should just proceed without politicking, he added.

Poe yesterday faced at the Commission on Elections (Comelec) former Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) chief legal counsel Estrella Elamparo, one of those seeking to disqualify her from running for president next year.

She attended the Second Division’s  public hearing, although her presence was not required.

During the hearing, Poe’s lawyer George Erwin Garcia asked the Comelec to consolidate Elamparo’s case with  similar cases against his client filed by former senator Francisco Tatad, De La Salle University professor Antonio Contreras and former University of the East College of Law dean Amado Valdez.

Elamparo told the Second Division that Poe should not be allowed to run for president because she lacks four months in the 10-year residency that the Constitution requires.

“The earliest possible time or date when the respondent (Poe) established residency may be reckoned from July 2006 when she acquired her (Filipino) citizenship,” she said.

This discrepancy was computed based on the period of residency declared by Poe in her COC when she ran for senator in 2013, Elamparo said.

However, Garcia said Poe had erred in the computation of her residency so it does not constitute perjury.

“It was an honest mistake,” he said.

“We did not lie for us to be qualified.” Poe’s COC for president has corrected the mistake, he added.

Residency pertains to the “intent to establish domicile,” Garcia said.

When Poe returned from the US in May 2005, she and her family had already decided to come back for good, he added.

This could be proven through the enrolment of Poe’s two children in a Philippine school, selling of their house in the US, and voting in three Philippine elections, Garcia said.

They also have documents showing communication on how to ship the family’s dog to the country, he added.

Elamparo said Poe is not qualified to seek the presidency under the ?Constitution because she is not a natural-born citizen because her biological parents are unknown.

At the most, Poe cannot be considered a Filipino citizen, she added.

No Philippine law grants foundlings like Poe natural-born citizenship, Elamparo said.

“I actually commiserate with the respondent and I believe that as a lawmaker (she should have) initiated measures to address her very own predicament,” she said.

The Philippines has not ratified any international convention that sought to address statelessness, Elamparo said.  “In my honest opinion, there is a legal vacuum in our system that does not seem to address the status of foundlings,” she said.

Poe is at “best presumed to be Filipino but definitely not natural born” and she is “legally stateless,” Elamparo said.

However, Garcia said nine international conventions on statelessness were in existence even before Poe was born. – With Jess Diaz, Paolo Romero, Christina Mendez