SC ruling skirts Poe citizenship

MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court (SC) is set to release today copies of the main resolution and various opinions of the justices on the eligibility of Sen. Grace Poe to run for president.

The SC, in full session in Baguio City last Tuesday, rejected pleas that it resolve the issue of whether she is a natural-born citizen eligible for the presidency, according to an insider.

The source told The STAR that the justices opted not to settle the citizenship issue sought in the appeals filed by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and four petitioners seeking Poe’s disqualification.

Instead, the justices kept their 9-6 vote granting Poe’s petitions and striking down the resolutions of the poll body disqualifying her in the presidential elections over material misrepresentations in her certificate of candidacy.

The nine justices in the majority ruling are Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno and Associate Justices Presbitero Velasco Jr., Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin, Jose Perez, Jose Mendoza, Marvic Leonen, Francis Jardeleza and Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa.

The six magistrates in the minority also voted to deny Poe’s petition – Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio and Associate Justices Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, Arturo Brion, Mariano del Castillo, Estela Perlas-Bernabe and Bienvenido Reyes.

“No ruling still on residency and citizenship; all justices maintained their earlier opinions,” said the insider, who spoke on condition of anonymity for lack of authority to speak for the court.

The high court has stood pat on its finding that there was no material misrepresentation on the part of the senator when she declared in her COC that she is a natural-born Filipino and a resident of the Philippines for 10 years.

It held that Poe is presumed to be a natural-born Filipino based on circumstances such as physical appearance as well as statistical probability.

The high tribunal agreed with the Office of the Solicitor General’s assertion that Poe is probably natural-born based on data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showing that more than 99 percent of babies born in the 1960s and 1970s, both in Iloilo and in the entire Philippines, were natural-born.

The SC also said Poe is probably natural-born because she was found at a Catholic church in Iloilo and possesses “typical Filipino features such as height, flat nasal bridge, straight black hair, almond- shaped eyes, and an oval face.”

Carpio has stressed in his dissenting opinion that there was no majority ruling to establish Poe’s eligibility as a natural-born citizen, saying only seven justices in the majority voted in favor of petitioner on the citizenship issue.

Four other justices in the minority ruling share Carpio’s position that foundlings like Poe cannot be considered natural-born citizens eligible for election to national posts, while three others – Peralta, del Castillo and Caguioa – opted not to take a stand on the issue, believing it was premature to do so.

Former University of the East College of Law dean Amado Valdez, one of the four petitioners in the disqualification cases against Poe, urged Peralta, del Castillo and Caguioa to reconsider their stand and instead take a vote on the citizenship issue to settle the controversy before the elections.

The three justices, however, have rejected the plea, according to the insider.

The three other disqualification petitioners – former senator Francisco Tatad, De La Salle University professor Antonio Contreras and former Government Service Insurance System counsel Estrella Elamparo – also filed their joint motion for reconsideration last month and asked the SC to reverse its ruling.

The Comelec, in its separate appeal, also urged the high court to hold another voting on the issues on citizenship and residency, agreeing with Carpio’s dissent that there was no majority vote finding Poe as a natural-born Filipino qualified to become president.

The Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) and Philippine Bar Association (PBA), the two major organizations of lawyers in the country, have also expressed concern over the SC ruling, saying it could have repercussions on the stability of the country’s legal system.

In interpreting the SC ruling, the IBP said the question on Poe’s citizenship eligibility remains as the high court has opted to resolve it only if Poe wins the presidency and her opponents contest it before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal.