SC mum on call to speed up Grace disqualification case

MANILA, Philippines – The Supreme Court will not reply to criticism from congressional leaders that the resolution of the disqualification case against Sen. Grace Poe is proceeding too slowly.

“We don’t comment on political statements so there’s no statement or response on that,” SC spokesman Theodore Te said in a text message yesterday.

Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno has assured the nation that the SC is aware of the urgency of resolving cases related to the upcoming elections.

“There might be things that we need to set aside because of the urgency of matters that need to be resolved,” she said in an interview last December.

“So we are keenly aware of all of those and you can see that most of the justices will be making themselves available for any eventuality… We need to work hard because this is the only process by which we can ensure that the right, just outcome will result.” 

The SC has held four oral arguments on the Poe case over the past month – with hearings held once a week.

It is expected to hold one or two more hearings before submitting the case for resolution and probably rule on the eligibility of Poe next month.

However, the Rules of Court provide for filing of an appeal, which means the decision would be final and executory by mid-March or later next month at the earliest.

The Commission on Elections is set to start printing of official ballots.  

Poe would remain in the ballot as a presidential candidate until the SC rules otherwise following a temporary restraining order on her disqualification.

Last Wednesday, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. and Senate President Franklin Drilon criticized the SC for not ruling with haste on Poe’s case.

Estrella Elamparo, one of the petitioners for Poe’s disqualification, has asked the SC to hold daily hearings to speed up resolution of the case.

Comelec debunks Poe defense

Last Tuesday, Comelec Commissioner Arthur Lim told the SC during the continuation of oral arguments that Poe’s claim of good faith and honest mistake in erroneous entries in her certificate of candidacy is unacceptable.

On interpellation of Associate Justice Estela Perlas-Bernabe, Lim stood pat on their findings that Poe had committed material misrepresentations in her certificate of COC on both citizenship and residency issues.

Finding good faith in Poe’s actions when she applied to re-acquire her citizenship and bought properties in the country was “somewhat an impossibility,” he added.

Lim said Poe claimed in her application to re-acquire her Filipino citizenship filed with the Bureau of Immigration in 2006 that she was born, not to adoptive parents, but to biological parents.

“Since good faith was an impossible finding, we would have found her ineligible,” he said. “It was simply impossible to find there was good faith on her part.”

Poe indicated in land titles for the properties that she acquired in San Juan and Quezon City in June 2006 that she was a Filipino citizen, he added.

Good faith implies honesty of intention and freedom from knowledge of circumstances that would put people under inquiry, he said.

Lim said Section 78 of the Omnibus Election Code provides that a verified petition seeking to deny due course or to cancel a COC may be filed by a person, exclusively on the ground that any material representation is false, is “plain and couched in simple language [that] it does not admit good faith as a defense.”

Poe should have consulted a lawyer in filling out her COC, he added.

Two legal experts – election lawyer Edgardo Carlo Vistan II and former Integrated Bar of the Philippines national president Vicente Joyas – agreed with this argument of the Comelec.

Vistan said the SC should not take into consideration Poe’s argument that she relied on good faith and that she was qualified when she accomplished her COC for the 2016 presidential race.

“The language of the law does not make the good faith, belief or state of mind of the candidate a factor in deciding whether or not to cancel the COC,” he said in a text message yesterday.

“As long as any information stated in the COC by the candidate as to his or her eligibility is false, that candidate must be disqualified.”

Joyas also rebutted the opinion of Associate Justice Marvic Leonen that the electorate should be allowed to vote for Poe.

No matter how many votes Poe would get in the election, the Constitution and the rule of law must prevail, he added.

Joyas said the dictum vox populi vox dei (the voice of the people is the voice of God) would not suit Philippine society, which is founded on the principle of republicanism, in which  the government is a government of laws and not of men.

“When a person who is not qualified is voted for and eventually garners the highest number of votes, even the will of the electorate expressed through the ballot cannot cure the defect in the qualification of the candidate,” he said.

Joyas said to rule otherwise would be to “trample upon and rent asunder the very law that sets forth the qualifications and disqualification of candidates.”

“We might as well write off our election laws if the voice of the electorate is the sole determinant of who should be proclaimed worthy to occupy elective positions in our republic,” he said.

The Comelec cited inconsistencies in the residency periods that Poe indicated in her COCs for the 2013 and 2016 elections.

Poe said she has been a resident of the Philippines for the last six years and six months when she filed her COC for her Senate bid in October 2012.

Exactly three years later, when she filed her COC for president in October last year, Poe indicated her residency period as being 10 years and 11 months, and not nine years and six months – which is what you get when you add three years to six years, six months as indicated in her 2012 COC.

Poe, a foundling legally adopted by movie stars Fernando Poe Jr. and Susan Roces, was born and raised in the Philippines but moved to the US in 1991 to finish her undergraduate studies and eventually worked there.

She decided to return to the Philippines after her father died in 2004, but returned to the US in February 2005.

She reportedly bought a house in Quezon City and enrolled her children in the Philippines in 2005.

In 2006, she acquired dual citizenship. Up until 2009, however, she continued using her US passport.

Later that year, she finally obtained her Philippine passport and in 2010, Poe renounced her US citizenship so she could be appointed chairman of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board.

She would affirm her renunciation in 2011.

Her camp said Poe returned to the country 11 years ago, in late 2004, following the death of her father.

But according to the Comelec’s Precinct Finder, Poe registered as a voter on Aug. 31, 2006 at the Sta. Lucia Elementary School in San Juan. She is a voter at Precinct 0349A.

Per Comelec’s computation, Poe reacquired her domicile in the country only on Aug. 31, 2006, which means her residency eligibility would still fall short by about three months.

Article VII Section 2 of the Constitution states that a presidential candidate must have been a resident of the Philippines for at least 10 years immediately preceding such election to be qualified.

Sotto: Allow processes to prevail

Meanwhile, Sen.  Vicente Sotto III yesterday urged his colleagues to allow processes to prevail as justices discuss thoroughly the disqualification cases against Poe.

Sotto said SC justices know what they are doing regarding Poe’s case.  

“It cuts both ways,” he said.

Sotto said some people were maybe trying to help Poe so there would be finality in the issue, while others really wanted Poe out of the race.

“But if it’s coming from Frank, it must be for Mar,” he said, referring to Senate President Franklin Drilon and Liberal Party standard bearer Manuel Roxas II.

Sotto said SC justices are independent personalities who would not be swayed by public opinion.

He is running for another term under the Team Galing at Puso, while also a guest candidate of the United Nationalist Alliance.

Adoptive parents denounce ruling

A federation of adoption advocates and association of adoptive parents banded together to denounce the Comelec’s ruling against Poe’s candidacy for president on the basis of her being a foundling.

Eric Mallonga, founder of the  Child Justice League, said they are rallying behind Poe because the Comelec decision will marginalize foundlings and even threaten to rob them of decent livelihood and professions.

“We are rallying for her candidacy but basically it goes beyond this election,” he said.

“We have long been on the ground on children’s rights and the rights of foundlings. We have long been helping foundlings, long before Grace Poe became a senator.”

Mallonga said that the Comelec decision, as well as the decision of the SC justices in the Senate Electoral Tribunal on the citizenship of Poe, threatens to turn ordinary Filipinos who were orphans out of their professions and decent jobs, particularly lawyers and those in government.

“There’s already a marginalization of foundlings because people are now confused,” he said. “They now mean to say that foundlings are stateless and should be deported.”

Mallonga heads the Meritxell Children’s World Foundation orphanage. 

He was a former chief legal counsel of the Bantay Bata Foundation for 15 years.

Meritxell Children’s World Foundation orphanage cares for 25 to 30 abandoned children, mostly foundlings, at any given time, Mallonga said.  

He was the main speaker in a forum on adoption and adoptive parents in Quezon City yesterday afternoon. 

Present in the forum were officers and  adoptive parents belonging to the Association of Child Caring Agencies of the Philippines, an umbrella group of officials of the different orphanages operating in the Philippines. – With Christina Mendez, Rainier Allan Ronda