Trillanes: Poe will hurdle disqualification cases
Senator Grace Poe Llamanzares will emerge victorious in her legal battle against her detractors who want her disqualified from the May, 2016, elections, Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV yesterday said.
Trillanes, one of the core leaders of the Magdalo party-list group which is supporting Poe’s presidential bid, said he is confident the embattled senator would be able to hurdle the disqualification cases filed against her which he seriously believes were mounted by two of her opponents in the presidential derby.
“All of these (disqualification) cases are just forms of
harassment. We all believe that Sen. Grace Poe is a Filipino. She was good enough for us as a senator. Twenty million people voted for her into office; nobody raised a whimper. But now that she’s running for president, things suddenly changed. It cannot be that way,” Trillanes said during a round-table interview with Manila Bulletin editors yesterday.
Apart from lawyer Rizalito David, former legal counsel of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) Estrella Elamparo and former Sen. Francisco “Kit” Tatad also filed separate petitions to deny due course and / or cancel Poe’s certificate of candidacy (COC) at the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
David filed the disqualification case against Poe before the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) while Elamparo and Tatad filed their petitions before the Comelec.
Trillanes said the petitioners are in one way or another associated with two of Poe’s strongest rivals in the presidential race. He did not identify them.
But Poe is running against Secwho retary Manuel “Mar” Roxas II of the administration Liberal Party and Vice President Jejomar Binay of the opposition United Nationalist Alliance.
“Sen. Kit Tatad is unashamedly associated with Vice President Binay, so it should be assumed as so,” Trillanes said.
But once the SET rules in favor of Poe, Trillanes said the other institutions would follow, especially if Poe continues to be number one in preferential surveys.
“So the SET case would be the main battle ground. Once victory is attained there, then all the rest would follow,” the senator said.
“Everybody knows Grace Poe is a Filipino. She is, no matter how you look at it,” he said.
Trillanes, who staged a mutiny to protest and call for former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s ouster in 2003, warned it won’t look good if the winning president wins by virtue of a disqualification of another candidate or by default. The aftermath can even trigger coups, said Trillanes, who led the Oakwood Mutiny in 2003.
“I believe this election should be decided by the people, our leaders should be decided and be picked by the people. Nobody should win by default, otherwise it would just promote instability and probably some coups later on,” he said.
“If for example, the president will be declared a winner in the 2016 elections, would be by virtue of a disqualification of another candidate, then you would not only have a minority president but a president who is not actually preferred by the people. And that’s a very difficult thing,” the senator stressed.
“He won’t be able to inspire his people and he won’t be able to earn the trust of the people. So you can’t govern that way,” he emphasized.
Meanwhile, Valenzuela City Rep. Win Gatchalian said the filing of disqualification cases against Poe is clearly a part of a political strategy to elbow her out from contention and is apparently being masterminded by any of the lady solon’s 130 rivals.
Gatchalian aired this opinion as Pasig City Rep. Roman Romulo expressed confidence that Poe will extricate herself from accusations that she is not a Filipino citizen.
Gatchalian, a former mayor and vice chairman of the House Committee on Metro Manila Development, and Romulo, chairman of the House Committee on Higher Education, are both joining the 2016 senatorial race.
Citing the plenary debates of delegates in the 1935 Constitutional Convention, Romulo said it was then delegate Manuel Roxas who made clear that the Charter must observe international laws that acknowledges that foundlings should be considered citizens of the country where they are found.
Roxas was the grandfather and namesake of Poe’s rival, Liberal Party standard bearer Manuel “Mar” Roxas II. He was to become the first president of the Philippine Republic after joining the 1935 Concon.
Gatchalian supported the view that the bid to disqualify Poe is part of a grand design to instill doubts among her supporters about her qualifications to become president.
“That is part of a political strategy, to file charges against a candidate. Expect more of the same cases in the future,” he explained, noting that the political season has started.
He backed the possibility that anyone of the “130 presidentiables” filed their 2015 presidential bid may have masterminded the filing of the cases.
While assuring the public that she will answer the citizenship and residency issues levelled against her, the Poe camp believes that the cases were aimed at brainwashing voters about her qualifications and thus, derail her presidential bid.
Both Gatchalian and Romulo agree with the suspicions aired by the Poe camp.
Roman said voters should thoroughly discuss the motivations behind the filing of the numerous cases against Poe.
“Although I don’t think the voters will easily be swayed by implications of these charges,” the senior administration congressman stated.
Romulo predicted Poe extricating herself from the moves to take her out of the presidential equation in 2016.
To back his opinion, Roman distributed copies of the deliberations on the citizenship issue when it was brought before delegates of the 1935 election.
“By international law, the principle that children or people are born in a country of unknown parents are citizens of that country is recognized, and it is not necessary to include a biding provisoin on the subject,” declared then delegate Roxas.
The former president made this contention as he stated that since the cases of citizenship of children with unknown parents in the Philippines are “very small and limited,” it should no longer be included in the Constitution but should follow doctrines in international laws. (With a report from Ben R. Rosario)