Another disqualification case vs Grace filed before Comelec
Another petition against Senator Grace Poe Llamanzares has been filed before the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
Antonio Contreras filed the petition for the cancellation of the certificate of candidacy (COC) of Poe at the Comelec yesterday allegedly because the latter made a false entry in her COC.
“This petition seeks to cancel the COC of respondent
Mary Grace Natividad Poe Llamanzares for the position of president in the 2016 elections on the ground that she made a false entry in the certificate of candidacy when she claimed that she is a legal resident of the Philippines for 10 years and 11 months by May 9, 2016,” read the petition.
He cited Section 78 of the Omnibus Election Code which states that “a verified petition seeking to deny due course or to cancel a certificate of candidacy may be filed by the person exclusively on the ground that any material representation contained therein as required under Section 74 hereof is false.”
The petitioner also cited Article 7, Section 2, of the 1987 Constitution which states that “no person may be elected president unless he is a natural-born citizen of the Philippines, a registered voter, able to read and write, at least 40 years of age on the day of the election, and a resident of the Philippines for at least 10 years immediately preceding such election.”
But the petitioner argued that respondent is not a resident of the Philippines for such indicated period.
“Her false entry is a blatant attempt to circumvent a constitutional requirement for the position of president,” the petition read.
“In order for her to qualify for the May 9, 2016 elections, she must have reacquired her domicile status in the country by May 9, 2006. As documents will show, she only reacquired her Filipino citizenship in July 18, 2006, when her petition to reacquire her Philippine citizenship was approved by the Bureau of Immigration,” it further read.
Thus, the petitioner said that in May 9, 2016, the respondent would have been resident of the country only for nine years, nine months, and 22 days, which is two months and nine days short of the ten years required by the 1987 Constitution.
“In her COC, she indicated that she is a legal resident of the country for a period of 10 years and 11 months by May 9, 2016. As such she made a false entry in her certificate of candidacy on information which is material to her qualifications to run for president, which is a ground to cancel such certificate,” read the petition.
“Wherefore, it is respectfully prayed that this petition be granted and that the CoC of the respondent Mary Grace Natividad Sonora Poe Llamanzares be cancelled on the ground that she made a material misrepresentation about her residency...” it further read.
Last week, Poe filed her COC for president for the May, 2016 polls.
Since then two petitions have already been filed against her at the poll body. The first petition was filed by former legal counsel of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) Estrella Elamparo. This was followed by former Sen. Francisco “Kit” Tatad . The petition of Contreras is so far the third.
Meanwhile, a former law school dean and a litigation lawyer expressed support yesterday for the disqualification cases filed with the Comelec against Poe.
Former University of the East law school dean Amado Valdez and lawyer Raymond Fortun said Senator Poe has not attained the 10-year residency required by the Constitution for a presidential candidate.
Valdez and Fortun, in separate interviews, noted inconsistencies in the residency periods that Poe indicated in her certificates of candidacy (COCs) for the 2013 and 2016 elections.
Article VII, Section 2, of the Constitution provides that “no person may be elected President unless he is a natural-born citizen of the Philippines, a registered voter, able to read and write, at least forty years of age on the day of the election, and a resident of the Philippines for at least 10 years immediately preceding such election.”
Earlier, Fortun had posted an “open letter” to Poe on his social media account urging her to concede that she would not meet the residency requirement based on the COC she filed when she ran for the Senate in 2013.
An adopted child, Poe moved in 1991 to the United States where she studied and eventually found a job. When actor Fernando Poe Jr. who adopted her died in 2004, she returned to the Philippines, then went back to the US in 2005.
That same year, 2005, upon her return to the Philippines, Poe bought a house in Quezon City and enrolled her children in the country. In 2006, she acquired dual citizenship.
However, government records showed that up until 2009, she continued using her American passport.
In 2010, Poe renounced her US citizenship with her appointment as chair of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board in that year. She affirmed her renunciation of her American citizenship in 2011.
While Poe said she returned to the Philippines 11 years ago in 2004, Comelec records showed that she registered as a voter on Aug. 31, 2006.
“If it were me, the ‘reckoning point’ of residency was when she told herself “I want to establish my residence in the Philippines’,” Fortun said.
“But subsequent acts may nullify that declaration for the simple reason that the subsequent act is not consistent with someone intending to return to the country,” Fortun said, citing Poe’s continued use of her American passport until 2009.
He said that “even if Poe had become a dual citizen in 2006 and declared anew her allegiance to the Philippines, her subsequent actions defeated that declaration.”
“To illustrate: I can declare my allegiance to the PH by tearing my green card in front of the US Embassy. Yet, I continue to use an American passport and pay my taxes in the US, while refusing to even get a PH cedula,” he said. “In such a situation, the verbal declaration does not jibe with subsequent acts which reflect a continual use of the benefits of being a US citizen.” (With a report from Rey G. Panaligan)