Drilon to SET: Decide Poe citizenship early

Senate President Franklin Drilon, vice chairman of the Liberal Party (LP) yesterday called on the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) to immediately resolve the disqualification case filed against independent presidential aspirant, Senator Grace Poe-Llamanzares.

Drilon urged the SET to resolve the issue on Poe’s citizenship before the filing of certificates of candidacy (COC) with the Commission on Elections (Comelec) which is scheduled on October 12-16.

He said this will also help keep the Comelec’s preparation for the May, 2016 presidential elections on schedule, as the printing of official ballots is already slated for January, 2016.

“I strongly urge the Senate Electoral Tribunal to expedite its hearings and immediately come out with a decision on the petition against 2016 presidential aspirant Senator Poe,” Drilon said. He said voters may get confused over Poe’s status in the upcoming presidential elections as the petition, which was filed by Atty. Rizalito David, casts doubts on the validity of her candidacy in next year’s polls.

“The petition raises serious doubts over Senator Poe’s being a natural-born Filipino and unavoidably, it also casts doubts on the validity of her candidacy in the upcoming presidential elections,” the Senate president said.

The SET had earlier set aside the petition questioning Poe’s residency as this issue is no longer relevant in relation to her qualification to be elected to the Senate. But it is bound to be raised in connection with her presidential candicacy.

Poe’s camp has declared the senator is a natural-born Filipino citizen even though she is a foundling.

Drilon noted Poe also admitted that in 2001, she was naturalized as a citizen of the United States and in 2006, she filed with the Bureau of Immigration (BI) a sworn petition to re-acquire her Philippine citizenship.

Poe also stated in defense that in 2010, she executed before a notary public in Pasig an “Affidavit of Renunciation of Allegiance to the United States of America and Renunciation of American Citizenship” and that at no time after she executed the affidavit in 2010 did she ever use her US passport.

Residency issue

The SET might have dismissed a petition to disqualify Poe on the residency issue when she ran for senator, but three legal experts yesterday warned that a similar petition may be filed against her when she files her certificate of candidacy (COC) for president next month.

The three legal experts said the dropping of the residency issue on the petition filed by Rizalito David did not clear Poe from questions on whether she meets the residency requirement for a presidential candidate under the Philippine Constitution.

Former UP law dean Pacifico Agabin said Article VII, Section 2, of the Philippine Constitution was explicit in saying that a presidential candidate must be a resident of the Philippines for at least ten years immediately preceding such election.

Former UE law dean Amado Valdez said the residency issue when applied to Poe’s presidential bid should be treated separately and differently from the residency issue filed in the Senate.

The SET decided last week to drop the residency issue as it applied to her as a senator had already prescribed. Under the rule, a disqualification case on the issue of residency must be filed within 10 days from the date of proclamation of a candidate.

Poe, who migrated to the US as a college student and earned citizenship there, still needs to prove that she has been a resident of the Philippines for at least 10 years before the May, 2016, elections, Valdez said. It is is only when she abandoned her US citizenship that she could be considered a resident in the Philippines for purposes of the elections,” he added.

Poe, a foundling left at the Jaro Church in Iloilo before being adopted by Fernando Poe and wife Susan Roces, has repeatedly insisted she is a Filipino and that she has fulfilled the 10-year residency requirement when she returned in the Philippines following her father’s death in 2004.

Documents she submitted to the SET to contest David’s disqualification case included an affidavit of renunciation of her US citizenship on October 20, 2010, a day before he took her oath as MTRCB chairwoman. She affirmed her renunciation before a vice consul at the US Embassy nine months later, on July 12, 2011.

Allies of Poe and some legal experts have said the doctrine of “animus revertendi” – or one’s intention to return to his or her domicile – applies to the senator.

But for lawyer Raymond Fortun, “the big question is: What was her unequivocal act in April or May, 2006, to convince the Commission on Elections and the Supreme Court that she had the desire to re-acquire residency in the Philippines?”

Asked what acts could unequivocally prove a desire to return to the Philippines, Fortun said, “Something permanent… a purchase of a property — a house, condo unit, country club share, or setting up a business or other similar investment.”

Poe reportedly purchased a property in late 2005 and had a house constructed in Quezon City in early 2006. She also enrolled her children in the Philippines in June, 2005.

Fortun raised concerns that her continued use of a US passport could be taken against her in case the matter is brought to the courts.

The Supreme Court recently declared that a candidate who had renounced his American citizenship, had re-acquired his Filipino citizenship, but used his American passport in his foreign travels is disqualified to run for public office. The court disqualified Rommel C. Arnado who had been elected twice as mayor of Kauswagan, Lanao del Norte in 2010 and 2013.

On the citizenship issue, Fortun said Poe’s citizenship should not be put in question just because she was a foundling left at the Jaro Church in Iloilo before being adopted by Fernando Poe and wife Susan Roces. “The Constitution is silent about a natural-born Filipino losing and then reacquiring citizenship. Thus, whether or not Senator Poe complies with the requirement on citizenship is for the courts to decide,” he said.

Comelec requirement Lawmakers expressed belief yesterday that the Commission on Elections’ resolution requiring candidates for the 2016 polls to declare in their certificates of candidacy (COCs) that they have renounced any foreign citizenship is not directed against presidential aspirant Sen. Grace Poe.

Speaker Feliciano “Sonny” Belmonte Jr., vice chairman of the Liberal Party, said the poll body had “no intention” to highlight the citizenship questions hounding Poe’s presidential bid when it issued Resolution No. 9989 which provides that a would-be candidate shall declare “I executed a sworn renunciation of foreign citizenship.”

Valenzuela City Rep. Sherwin Gatchalian, a declared senatorial bet and a leader of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), said the Comelec’s move was an offshoot of the August 18, 2015, ruling of the Supreme Court in the Arnado vs. Comelec case. In that case, the High Court ruled that people with dual citizenship may run for public office in the Philippines, provided that they meet the qualifications set by the Constitution and existing laws; and make a personal and sworn renunciation of foreign citizenship when they file their CoCs.

Quezon Rep. Mark Enverga, NPC spokesman, said the new Comelec requirement will have no effect on Poe’s presidential bid. “I personally welcome this innovative move of the Comelec. This will lessen election protests and allow the commissioners to instead focus on preparing for the election proper,” Enverga said. (With reports from Leonard D. Postrado and Charissa M. Luci)