1. Poe-Llamanzares v.

Commission on Elections,
SCRA (G.R. Nos. 221697, etc., 8 March 2016,
and, 5 April 2016)
Topic : Executive

Facts:
In her COC for presidency for the May 2016 elections, Grace Poe declared that she is a natural-born citizen and that
her residence in the Philippines up to the day before 9 May 2016 would be 10 years and 11 months counted from
24 May 2005.

May 24, 2005 was the day she came to the Philippines after deciding to stay in the PH for good. Before that
however, and even afterwards, she has been going to and fro between US and Philippines. She was born in 1968,
found as newborn infant in Iloilo, and was legally adopted. She immigrated to the US in 1991 and was naturalized
as American citizen in 2001. On July 18, 2006, the BI granted her petition declaring that she had reacquired her
Filipino citizenship under RA 9225. She registered as a voter and obtained a new Philippine passport. In 2010,
before assuming her post as an appointed chairperson of the MTRCB, she renounced her American citizenship to
satisfy the RA 9225 requirement . From then on, she stopped using her American passport.

Petitions were filed before the COMELEC to deny or cancel her candidacy on the ground particularly, among others,
that she cannot be considered a natural-born Filipino citizen since she cannot prove that her biological parents or
either of them were Filipinos. The COMELEC en banc cancelled her candidacy on the ground that she is in want of
citizenship and residence requirements, and that she committed material misrepresentations in her COC.

On certiorari, the SC reversed the ruling and held (9-6 votes) that Poe is qualified as a candidate for
Presidency. Three justices, however, abstained to vote on the natural-born citizenship issue.

Issue:
1. W/N the COMELEC has jurisdiction to rule on the issue of qualifications of candidates
2. W/N Grace Poe-Llamanzares is a natural-born Filipino citizen
3. W/N Grace Poe satisfies the 10-year residency requirement
4. W/N the Grace Poes candidacy should be denied or cancelled for committing material misrepresentations
in her COC

Held:
1. No. Article IX-C, Sec 2 of the Constitution provides for the powers and functions of the COMELEC, and
deciding on the qualifications or lack thereof of a candidate is not one among them.

In contrast, the Constitution provides that only the SET and HRET tribunals have sole jurisdiction over the election
contests, returns, and qualifications of their respective members, whereas over the President and Vice President,
only the SC en banc has sole jurisdiction. As for the qualifications of candidates for such positions, the Constitution
is silent. There is simply no authorized proceeding in determining the ineligibility of candidates before
elections. Such lack of provision cannot be supplied by a mere rule, and for the COMELEC to assimilate grounds
for ineligibility into grounds for disqualification in Rule 25 in its rules of procedures would be contrary to the intent
of the Constitution.
Hence, the COMELEC committed grave abuse of discretion when it decided on the qualification issue of Grace as a
candidate in the same case for cancellation of her COC.

2. Yes, Grace Poe might be and is considerably a natural-born Filipino. For that, she satisfies one of the
constitutional requirements that only natural-born Filipinos may run for presidency.
First, there is a high probability that Grace Poes parents are Filipinos. Her physical features are typical of Filipinos.
The fact that she was abandoned as an infant in a municipality where the population of the Philippines is
overwhelmingly Filipinos such that there would be more than 99% chance that a child born in such province is a
Filipino is also a circumstantial evidence of her parents nationality. That probability and the evidence on which it
is based are admissible under Rule 128, Section 4 of the Revised Rules on Evidence. To assume otherwise is to
accept the absurd, if not the virtually impossible, as the norm.

Second, by votes of 7-5, the SC pronounced that foundlings are as a class, natural-born citizens. This is based on the
finding that the deliberations of the 1934 Constitutional Convention show that the framers intended foundlings to
be covered by the enumeration. While the 1935 Constitutions enumeration is silent as to foundlings, there is no
restrictive language which would definitely exclude foundlings either. Because of silence and ambiguity in the
enumeration with respect to foundlings, the SC felt the need to examine the intent of the framers.

Third, that foundlings are automatically conferred with natural-born citizenship is supported by treaties and the
general principles of international law. Although the Philippines is not a signatory to some of these treaties, it
adheres to the customary rule to presume foundlings as having born of the country in which the foundling is found.

3. Yes. Grace Poe satisfied the requirements of animus manendi coupled with animus revertendi in acquiring
a new domicile.

Grace Poes domicile had been timely changed as of May 24, 2005, and not on July 18, 2006 when her application
under RA 9225 was approved by the BI. COMELECs reliance on cases which decree that an aliens stay in the
country cannot be counted unless she acquires a permanent resident visa or reacquires her Filipino citizenship is
without merit. Such cases are different from the circumstances in this case, in which Grace Poe presented an
overwhelming evidence of her actual stay and intent to abandon permanently her domicile in the US. Coupled with
her eventual application to reacquire Philippine citizenship and her familys actual continuous stay in the
Philippines over the years, it is clear that when Grace Poe returned on May 24, 2005, it was for good.

4. No. The COMELEC cannot cancel her COC on the ground that she misrepresented facts as to her citizenship
and residency because such facts refer to grounds for ineligibility in which the COMELEC has no jurisdiction
to decide upon. Only when there is a prior authority finding that a candidate is suffering from a
disqualification provided by law or the Constitution that the COMELEC may deny due course or cancel her
candidacy on ground of false representations regarding her qualifications.
5.
In this case, by authority of the Supreme Court Grace Poe is now pronounced qualified as a candidate for the
presidency. Hence, there cannot be any false representations in her COC regarding her citizenship and residency.