MANILA, Philippines — The Supreme Court released on Friday the copy of the decision penned by Associate Justice Jose Perez paving the way for Sen. Grace Poe to push through with her bid for the presidency.
The magistrates voted 9-6 to overturn the Commission on Elections' resolution to disqualify Poe from the presidential race last year over issues of citizenship and length of residency required for elected posts. The poll body ruled that she was not a natural-born Filipino as required by the Constitution because she was abandoned as a baby by her unknown parents in a Roman Catholic church in Iloilo.
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The United States-educated Poe, a former pre-school teacher, is the adopted daughter of one of the Philippines' most famous movie couples. Her late father, Fernando Poe Jr., was a movie action star who mostly played roles as a defender of the poor in a country where about a fourth of the more than 100 million Filipinos wallow in poverty.