How loyal is Grace to country?

IS the suspense over? By the time this column is out, Grace Poe may have announced her political plans for 2016. Previous to this she had been going around the country as if she’s a candidate. The initial public reaction to the news that Poe might be a candidate for president or vice president must have been heartwarming for her, encouraging her to entertain thoughts of running for higher office.

I’ve written early on, when members of the public began to voice their approval of a possible presidential or vice presidential run by Poe, that that surge of approbation had convinced Grace that her chances of getting elected president were excellent. It didn’t take her long to believe that she is, in the language of politics, “winnable.”

Thus she chose to spurn the courtship of her by President Aquino to run as Mar Roxas’ vice-presidential teammate. Thus she could say, not in so many words but in thinly veiled code, “no” to Mr. Aquino.

For months now, longtime political observers had been predicting a Poe-for-President campaign. As a consequence, stumbling blocks are being erected in her path by those who, for their respective reasons, don’t wish her to be president.

Already legal action has been taken to disqualify her from running. Those legal challenges will of course be dealt with by the proper legal bodies.

But one verdict on her will have to be handed down by the Filipino people. And that concerns Poe’s loyalty to the nation.

Former Albay Congressman Edcel Lagman makes a compelling argument that Poe’s loyalty to our country is questionable. Having once renounced her Filipino citizenship and reacquired it later (out of convenience, Lagman says), Poe’s loyalty to country is suspect.

How can the Filipino people be sure that Poe, if elected, will honor the presidential oath of office “given her shifting loyalties”? Lagman wonders.

I’ve not always agreed with Lagman’s partisan politics (circa GMA), but on this issue I must say that he makes a strong point. In an opinion piece in another publication last week, Lagman quoted the oath to which naturalized Americans swear.

I requote the pertinent part here: “I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereign, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic....”

Lagman’s point is that one, Grace Poe had once renounced her Filipino citizenship in favor of American citizenship. Two, Poe reacquired Filipino citizenship on July 7, 2006. And three, she only gave up her American citizenship on Oct. 20, 2010 (meaning she had Filipino and American dual citizenship for more than four years).

Lagman wrote: “Loyalty cannot be discarded and retrieved like apparel in one’s wardrobe.” And ends with his question whether there’s assurance Poe will be loyal to her oath of office despite her shifting loyalties.

Lagman takes the question about Poe’s suitability for the presidency outside the legal skirmishes that are taking place right now. Instead, he’s asking the Filipino people whether they will entrust the presidency to someone who had once discarded her Filipino citizenship in favor of another, that of the United States, and reassumed the former when she found that convenient.

I think it’s a very valid question to ask. Lagman didn’t mince words: “The fact that... Poe... abdicated fidelity to the Philippines and disavowed loyalty to the republic, does not make her deserving of the presidency.”

Lagman further notes that “No one in Philippine history has vied for the presidency who was previously an alien, a citizen of a foreign country by naturalization.”

Something the Filipino people should seriously think about as they decide for whom to vote in 2016.