A further digest of another digest by Vena V. Verga, presented in a way laymen would better understand. It is for you to be informed of what netizens are raging about.
GRACE POE vs. COMELEC
The Case
· Grace Poe was found abandoned as a
newborn infant in the Parish Church of Jaro, Iloilo by Edgardo Militar in 1968.
Parental care and custody over her was passed on by Edgardo to his
relatives, Emiliano Militar and his wife. Emiliano reported and registered Grace Poe as a foundling with the Office of the Civil Registrar of Iloilo City.
Fenando Poe, Jr. and Susan Roces adopted Grace Poe.
·
1991 – Poe
went to the US to be a permanent resident therein
·
2001 – She
became a naturalized US citizen
·
First quarter of 2005 – she came back to the Philippines to permanently reside herein
·
February 14, 2006- she went back to the US to dispose family belongings
·
July 18, 2006 – she re-acquired
Filipino citizenship
·
According to Poe in her 2013 COC
for Senator, before the May 13, 2013 election,
she has been a resident of the Philippines for 6 years and 6 months (reckoned from year
2006 when she re-acquired her Filipino citizenship under RA 9225).
·
Poe filed her COC for Presidency
for the May 9, 2016 elections (hence, computing from May, 2013, she has been a resident in the
Philippines for 9 years and 6 months only)
·
However,
in her COC, Poe declared that she is a natural born and her residence in the
Philippine up to the day before election would be 10 years and 11 months
counted from May 24, 2005 (when she returned from the US to the Philippines for good).
RULING OF THE SUPREME
COURT
Poe
is qualified to be a candidate for President in the National and Local Election
on May 9, 2016.
1)
Is
Poe, a foundling, a natural-born citizen? Yes, based on:
a) Circumstantial evidence
b) Legislation
c) Generally accepted
principles of international law
Circumstantial evidence
There is more than sufficient evidence that Poe has Filipino parents and is
therefore a natural-born Filipino. xxx. [T]here is a
high probability that her parents are Filipinos. The Solicitor General offered
official Statistics from the Philippine Statistics office that from 1965 to
1975, the total number of foreigners born in the Philippines was 15,985. While
the Filipinos born in the country were more than 10 Million. On this basis, there
is a 99% chance that the child born in the Philippines would be a Filipino
which in turn, would indicate more than ample probability that Poe’s parents
are Filipinos.
Other
circumstantial evidence of the nationality of Poe’s parents are the fact that:
1.
She was abandoned in a Roman Catholic Church in Iloilo
2.
She has typical Filipino features.
There
are disputable presumptions that things have happened according to the ordinary
course of nature. On this basis, it is safer to assume that Poe’s parents are
Filipinos. To assume otherwise is to accept the absurd.
Legislation
Foundlings
are as a class, natural born citizens.
Ø The amendment to the Constitution proposed by
constitutionalist Rafols to include foundlings as natural born citizens was not
carried out, not because there was any objection to the notion that persons of
unknown parentage are not citizens, but only because their number was not
enough to merit specific mention. There was no intent or language that would
permit discrimination against foundlings. On the contrary, all three
Constitutions guarantee the basic right to equal protection of the laws.
Ø Likewise, domestic laws on adoption support the
principle that foundlings are Filipinos. These laws do not provide that
adoption confers citizenship upon the adoptee, rather, the adoptee must be
Filipino in the first place to be adopted.
Ø Recent legislation all expressly refer to “Filipino children” and
include foundlings as among Filipino children who may be adopted.
Generally accepted principles of international law
The
common thread of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child
and the International Convent on Civil
and Political Rights obligates the Philippines to grant nationality from
birth and to ensure that no child is stateless. The principles stated in the:
1.
Hague
Convention on Certain Questions Relation to the Conflict of Nationality laws
(that a foundling is presumed to have the nationality of the country of birth)
2.
Convention
on the Reduction of Statelessness (foundling is presumed born of citizens of
the country where he is found)
bind
the Philippines although we are not signatory to these conventions.
Poe’s
evidence shows that at least 60 countries in Asia, North and South America and
Europe have passed legislation recognizing foundlings as its citizens. 166 out
of 189 countries accept that foundlings are recognized as citizens. Hence,
there is a generally accepted principle of international law to presume
foundlings as having been born and a national of the country in which it is
found.
2)
After
renouncing her American citizenship and after having taken her Oath of
Allegiance to the Republic of the Philippines, has Poe re-acquired her status
as a natural-born Filipino citizen? Yes, Poe’s repatriation resulted to
reacquisition of natural born citizenship.
A
natural born citizen before he lost his Philippine nationality will be restored
to his former status as natural born Filipino after repatriation (Benson v. HRET, Pareno v. Commission on
Audit etc).
3)
Has
Poe satisfied the 10 year residency requirement? Yes, she will have been a
resident for 10 years and 11 months on the day of the election.
[T]here
is overwhelming evidence that leads to no to other conclusion that Poe decided
to permanently abandon her US residence and reside in the Philippines as early
as May 24, 2005.
Poe
presented voluminous evidence showing that she and her family abandoned their
US domicile and relocated to the Philippines for good. These evidence include
former US passport showing her arrival on May 24, 2005 and her return to the
Philippines every time she travelled abroad, email correspondences with freight
company to arrange for the shipment of household items as well as with the pet
Bureau; school records of her children showing enrolment in the Philippine to
the Philippine schools starting on June 2005 etc. xxx These evidence, coupled
with her eventual application to reacquire Philippine citizenship is clear that
when she returned in May 2005, it was for good.
Poe
was able to prove that her statement in her 2013 COC was only a mistake in good
faith. As explained by Grace Poe, she misunderstood the date required in the 2013 COC as the period of residence as of the day she submitted that COC in 2012. She said that she reckoned residency from April-May 2006 which was the period when the U.S. house was sold and her husband returned to the Philippines. In that regard, she was advised by her lawyers in 2015 that residence could be counted from 25 May 2005. Such a mistake could be given in evidence against her but it was by no
means conclusive considering the overwhelming evidence submitted by Poe.
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NOTE: The Supreme Court is the highest court in the Philippines. It is the court of last resort, which means that it gives the final disposition to a case which cannot be overturned by any other court but itself. In short, it resolves controversies once and for all. Whatever it says, forms part of the law of the land; whatever it says, binds us all Filipinos, even our children yet to be born unless it has decided differently in another subsequent case.
Classic display of power and personal interests, well-executed but of course, highly doubted. This is a shameless disregard of the most fundamental law, a revolutionary turn-around from the rule of law, slavery to the should-be infallible, thief to lawyers and aspirants, the downfall of a highly respected profession, an evidence of the evils of corruption. What else could happen in this country?
As a law student, I am deeply frustrated but this is more reason for me to be one of the lawyers who stand for and by the law, inviolable as it is, sacred in its letters and spirit. Never shall I play blind, never shall I be blinded.
As it ever was and should always be--dura lex sed lex.
As it ever was and should always be--dura lex sed lex.
