She is a natural-born citizen

A Disqualification case to unseat Senator Grace Poe from the

Philippine Senate
-KENT ALVIN L. GUZMAN, Ll.B.1
Citizenship is a treasured right conferred on those whom the state
believes are deserving of the privilege. It is a precious heritage, as
well as an inestimable acquisition, that cannot be taken lightly by
anyone either by those who enjoy it or by those who dispute it.
(Tecson v Comelec)
Rizalito David, a losing senatorial candidate of the Kapatiran party in the
2013 elections, finally filed last week for the second time after he was not
able to file the petition after he failed to pay the P50, 000 filing fee and P10,
000 deposit, a petition before the Senate Electoral Tribunal in Quezon City
seeking to unseat Poe.
For me, the case filed against Senator Grace Poe-Llamanzares will not
prosper and should be denied. It will only create a narrative which may
accelerate her bid for the presidency. My basis in claiming as such are 1935
Constitution, generally accepted principles of international law on the
presumed citizenship of foundlings and International Convention on
Statelessness international Convention on Statelessness, Universal
Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Supreme Court doctrine of foundling,
Fernando Poe case, popularity as a defense, opinions of election lawyers and
justices (specifically Justice Panganiban), the animus revertendi doctrine and
actual physical residence.
Critics are questioning the citizenship of Senator Grace Poe, whether she is a
natural-born Filipino; 1) as a foundling, she was stateless, 2) by her marriage,
she acquired the American citizenship of her husband, and 3) her adoption
by Fernando Poe Jr. and Susan Roces did not confer natural-born citizenship
on her.
Under our 1987 Constitution, no person may be elected President or VicePresident or Senator or Congressman unless he or she is a natural-born
citizen of the Philippines A Natural-born citizens are those who are citizens
of the Philippines from birth without having to perform any act to acquire or
perfect their Philippine citizenship.
1935 Philippine Constitution. The Constitution requires natural-born
citizenship from birth and since Senator Poe was born in 1968 and was
found practically within hours of being born. She was found abandoned as an
infant at the Jaro Cathedral in Iloilo. She was adopted by FPJ and his wife,
actress Susan Roces. The governing law would be the 1935 Constitution.
Under the 1935 Constitution, is considered a citizen of the Philippines based
on Article IV, Section 1, which classifies citizens as "those whose fathers are
citizens of the Philippines
However, the framers of the 1935 Constitution explained that expressly
providing citizenship rules for foundlings was unnecessary since that could
be determined from international law. Note that under the same Charter (and

also under the present one), the Philippines adopts the generally
accepted principles of international law as part of the law of the Nation.
Generally accepted principles of international law on the presumed
citizenship of foundlings and International Convention on
Statelessness. Under Art. 2 of the 1961 International Convention on
Statelessness, [a] foundling found in the territory of a Contracting State
shall, in the absence of proof to the contrary, be considered to have been
born within the territory of parents possessing the nationality of that State.
Applying that article to Senator Poe, a foundling found in the Philippines is
presumed, in the absence of contrary proof, to have Filipino biological
parents. Since she was found near a church in Jaro, Iloilo, when she was only
a few days old, her parents are presumed to be Filipinos.
True, the Philippines is not a signatory or a Contracting State in this treaty.
However, the treaty possesses the two elements of a generally accepted
principle of international law because the grant of nationality to a foundling
is an established, widespread and consistent practice of many states since
1961 to the present. Hence, it is deemed a part of the law of the Nation.
According to Razon vs Taglis (Dec. 3, 2009), this widespread practice or
international custom could be shown from State practice, State
legislation, international and national judicial decisions, recitals in treaties
and other international instruments, a pattern of treaties in the same form,
the practice of international organs, and resolutions relating to legal
questions in the UN General Assembly.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Under the 1948
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), to which the Philippines is a
signatory and which our Supreme Court has consistently enforced, Everyone
has a right to a nationality. Thus, a denial of nationality or citizenship to
Senator Poe would be a plain violation of the UDHR.
American citizenship and adoption. True, she acquired American citizenship
after she married her American husband. But she already renounced such
citizenship in accordance with American law. And the American Embassy has
affirmed such renunciation.
This affirmation is important because under the 1930 Hague Convention on
the Conflict of Nationality Laws, [i]t is for each State to determine under its
own law who are its nationals. Thus, American, not Philippine, law
determines who are American citizens.
Supreme Court Doctrines. The Supreme Court has ruled several times
that adoption does not confer citizenship. It only gives the adopted child the
civil rights of a legitimate child, like the right to use the surname of and to
inherit from the adoptive parents.
According to Justice Panganiban, these rulings do not apply to foundlings.
They were issued by our Court to prevent aliens from short-circuiting our
strict naturalization rules by undergoing the easier adult adoption processes.
Fernando Poe case. FPJ himself faced a similar issue at the height of the
2004 presidential elections. The Supreme Court ruled against the petitioners

who argued that the actor is not a natural-born Filipino citizen because he
was an illegitimate child. Being an adopted daughter, Senator Grace Poe
inherited the citizenship of her adoptive father.
The SC held in the case of Tecson vs Comelec, Ronald Allan Kelly Poe (a.k.a.
Fernando Poe, Jr.), March 3, 2004; it is necessary to take on the matter of
whether or not respondent FPJ is a natural-born citizen, which, in turn,
depended on whether or not the father of respondent, Allan F. Poe, would
have himself been a Filipino citizen and, in the affirmative, whether or not the
alleged illegitimacy of respondent prevents him from taking after the Filipino
citizenship of his putative father. Any conclusion on the Filipino citizenship of
Lorenzo Pou could only be drawn from the presumption that having died in
1954 at 84 years old, Lorenzo would have been born sometime in the year
1870, when the Philippines was under Spanish rule, and that San Carlos,
Pangasinan, his place of residence upon his death in 1954, in the absence of
any other evidence, could have well been his place of residence before death,
such that Lorenzo Pou would have benefited from the en masse Filipinization
that the Philippine Bill had effected in 1902. That citizenship (of Lorenzo Pou),
if acquired, would thereby extend to his son, Allan F. Poe, father of respondent
FPJ. The 1935 Constitution, during which regime respondent FPJ has seen first
light, confers citizenship to all persons whose fathers are Filipino citizens
regardless of whether such children are legitimate or illegitimate.
But while the totality of the evidence may not establish conclusively that
respondent FPJ is a natural-born citizen of the Philippines, the evidence on
hand still would preponderate in his favor enough to hold that he cannot be
held guilty of having made a material misrepresentation in his certificate of
candidacy in violation of Section 78, in relation to Section 74, of the Omnibus
Election Code. Petitioner has utterly failed to substantiate his case before the
Court, notwithstanding the ample opportunity given to the parties to present
their position and evidence, and to prove whether or not there has been
material misrepresentation, which, as so ruled in Romualdez-Marcos vs.
COMELEC must not only be material, but also deliberate and willful.

Election Lawyers legal opinion. Former Commission on Elections

(Comelec) chairman Sixto Brillantes, FPJ's election lawyer, meanwhile argued
that citizenship is based on the principle of jus sanguinis (Latin: right of
blood) wherein one can be considered a natural-born Filipino if one of his or
her parents is Filipino. Brillantes also said that whoever dares to use the
citizenship issue against Poe in time for the 2016 elections has the burden of
proof.
Popularity as a defense. Senator Grace Poe was elected in the 2013
Senatorial election and garnered more than 20 million votes nationwide.
Therefore, it manifests that said millions of people who voted for her as their
Representative in the Senate will back up for her, as the people exercised
their right of suffrage, to freely choose their representative.
As the case of Frivaldo vs Comelec (June 28, 1996), despite his lack of
citizenship issue, Frivaldo was overwhelmingly elected governor by the
electorate of Sorsogon with a margin of 27, 000 votes in the 1988 elections,
57, 000 in 1992, and 20, 000 in 1995 over the same opponent Raul Lee.
Twice, he was judicially declared a non-Filipino and thus twice disqualified
from holding and discharging his popular mandate. Now, he comes the third
time, with a 20, 000 votes from the people of Sorsogon and a favorable
decision from the COMELEC and the SC held that Frivaldo regain his Filipino

citizenship by virtue of PD 725 and the repatriation of Frivaldo retroacted to

the date of the filing of his application on August 17, 1994 and thus owed
allegiance to the Republic of the Philippines).

Animus Revertendi Doctrine. In animus revertendi, the moment you have

established residency through living, domicile, you don't lose simply because
you go to US, as in the case of Senator Poe. You don't lose it even if you stay
for extended number of years. You don't lose it because you adopted another
citizenship," The rule is, intention decides cases like this, animus revertendi,
which means intention to return to the Philippines and die in the Philippines.
Permanency, you should consider, is the permanency not of physical
presence but permanency of intention.
Actual Physical Residence. According to Senator Chiz Escudero, not only
the Dcotrine of Animus Revertendi Doctrine (intention to return) is applicable
but also the actual physical residence of Grace Poe. He recalled that Poe was
already living in the country from the time her father died in 2004.
In finality, the case filed by Mr. David is obviously connected to the upcoming
2016 Presidential elections, taking consideration of the time when he filed
the same. He should file it after Senator Grace Poe was proclaimed as one of
the winners or before the 2013 elections. Frankly speaking, the filing of such
disqualification by Mr. David manifests his own Political interest and not
actually seeking a sincere collective justice. Based on the facts and basis to
those above-mentioned anent to the citizenship of Senator Grace Poe, I
humbly and strongly agree that Senator Grace Poe-Llamanzares is a Naturalborn citizen. #

Additional Information:

Mr. David was accompanied by some members of an urban poor community

when he paid the P50,000 filing fee and P10,000 deposit and the SET
officially accepted a quo warranto that sought to oust Poe from the Senate.
He said some of his friends donated money and lent him additional funds. He
claimed that Poe should not have been elected in 2013 because she is not a
natural-born Filipino and she lacked the residency requirement for a
senatorial candidate a violation of the Constitution.
The present Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) was constituted under
Section 17, Article VI of the 1987 Constitution to be the sole judge of all
contests relating to the election, returns and qualification of members of the
Senate of the Philippines. It is an independent, impartial and non-partisan
tribunal composed of nine (9) members. Three (3) members are Associate
Justices of the Supreme Court designated by the Chief Justice. As envisioned
by the framers of the Constitution, they serve to neutralize the partisanship
that may arise from the political affiliation of the other six (6) members, who
are Senators of the Philippines chosen on the basis of proportional
representation from the political parties represented in the Senate. The
Tribunal is chaired by the most senior Associate Justice-Member.
The current Tribunal is composed of:

Hon. Justice Antonio T. Carpio, Chairperson

Hon. Justice Teresita J. Leonardo-De Castro, Member

Hon. Justice Arturo D. Brion, Member

Hon. Senator Loren B. Legarda, Member

Hon. Senator Paolo Benigno Bam A. Aquino, IV, Member

Hon. Senator Compaera Pia S. Cayetano, Member

Hon. Senator Cynthia A. Villar, Member

Hon. Senator Vicente C. Sotto III, Member

Hon. Senator Maria Lourdes Nancy S. Binay, Member