FPJ lawyer to submit vital document to SC

A lawyer for opposition presidential candidate Fernando Poe Jr. said yesterday he will submit a "filiation" document to the Supreme Court today to prove that the actor’s late father acknowledged him as a son.

Former solicitor general Estelito Mendoza said the document was part of the evidence they submitted to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) last month in answer to the disqualification suit filed against the movie star.

Mendoza said a sworn statement signed by Poe’s father in December 1947 was not disputed by the Comelec, which dismissed the disqualification petition filed by lawyer Victorino Fornier against Poe early this month.

Mendoza told The STAR yesterday that a four-page post-World War II document called "Affidavit for Philippine Army Personnel," showed that Capt. Fernando Reyes Poe Sr., of San Carlos, Pangasinan, signed a sworn statement acknowledging he had a child named "Ronnie," which he purportedly said was then five years old.

Aside from Ronnie, Poe Sr. also acknowledged in the document he had children named Elizabeth, six years old, and Fernando II, three years old.

"This is the proof, This is additional and conclusive evidence (that Poe is a Filipino), apart from Ronnie’s birth certificate. We have submitted this to the Comelec before. And the Forniers (brothers) were furnished a copy of this. This is a certified true copy from the Armed Forces of the Philippines," Mendoza said in furnishing a copy to The STAR.

The document was signed by Poe Sr. himself and was sworn to before a certain 2Lt. Benjamin Ramos as summary court officer.

Mendoza said they secured the document from a certain Army Lt. Col. Narciso Erna. "The (same) document was admitted as evidence at the Comelec," he said.

Asked about the seeming discrepancy in the age of Poe Jr. since he should have been eight in 1947, Mendoza simply replied: "That’s no longer important."

"The arithmetic of his father was wrong. I don’t know about it. But that’s an AFP document, and they can get a copy from there," Mendoza said.

Mendoza also pointed out an important detail in the document proving that Poe Sr. was married to Bessie Kelley in January 1939, which apparently contradicted earlier claims that they got married a year after Poe was born.

This means the actor was already conceived before his parents got married and he was born August 20, 1939, or seven months after the marriage.

Mendoza then explained the disparity in the dates was "understandable" since Poe Sr. was also an actor who had a "macho image" to protect.

Mendoza stressed the document was not among those which had been allegedly forged by erstwhile National Archives chief Ricardo Manapat. "This is authentic. This did not come from the archives office. This is a certified true copy," he said.

Manapat had attested before the Comelec as to the authenticity of the documents submitted by Fornier — mainly Poe’s birth certificate, the marriage certificates of his parents and that of the actor’s father and one Paulita Gomez.

Manapat was later accused for falsification after three of his former employees testified before a Senate committee last month that the sacked archives director ordered them to fabricate the documents to support the disqualification bid against Poe.

The Comelec in an en banc ruling Feb. 6, threw out Fornier’s appeal and upheld the earlier decision by the poll body’s first division, pointing out Poe did not misrepresent himself to be a Filipino citizen qualified to run for president.

Fornier then elevated his petition before the Supreme Court, joining other petitioners who went directly to the high tribunal in urging to declare Poe as unfit to run in the May 10 presidential elections since he is not a natural-born Filipino citizen.

The Supreme Court had invited four amici curiae (friends of the court) to help the magistrates decide the issue.

The four legal experts are of the opinion that having a Filipino father is sufficient for Poe to be considered a natural-born Filipino, notwithstanding allegations of his being an illegitimate child of an American mother.

While they cited various reasons why Poe should be considered as a natural-born Filipino, the four friends of the court — constitutional law expert Fr. Joaquin Bernas, retired justice Vicente Mendoza, former University of the Philippines College of Law dean Merlin Magallona and UP law professor Ruben Balane — however, did not state outright that the evidence presented by the petitioners seeking to disqualify Poe might be lacking.

Since the Supreme Court has no jurisdiction over factual issues, they said proof to establish Poe’s relationship to his father is a matter for the lower courts to decide.

The four legal experts are of the opinion that "blood relation" is all that is needed for a child to acquire the citizenship of either parent, pointing out the Constitution does not make any distinction on the birth status of the candidate running for public office.

‘A Bad Feeling’

Poe’s camp said the consensus of the four friends of the court is an indication of how the Supreme Court will rule on the issue.

Poe’s spokesman, Sorsogon Rep. Francis Escudero, said the actor need not prove his filiation since it is already indicated in the documents earlier submitted to the Comelec as part of their records.

"It (proof of filiation) is already there (in the birth certificate)," Escudero pointed out.

On the other hand, Fornier issued a statement urging the Supreme Court to arrive at its own conclusions over the issue, entirely independent from the opinions made by the friends of the court, which he called "not neutral."

"Obviously, they (friends of the court) violated their role as amici curiae. They have already made their conclusions on the case," Fornier said.

"The amici curiae should have given their thoughts on the law, not make their own conclusions because that is the role of the Supreme Court. The amici curiae are not Supreme Court justices," he said.

Fornier reiterated his position that the Supreme Court should decide the issue of Poe’s citizenship and not remand the case to the lower courts to rule on factual issues, as has been suggested.

"There is no need for that because all the evidence in the case were already deemed admissions," he said.

Court officials had said it may take two weeks for the tribunal to decide on the case.

Supreme Court senior chief staff officer Cleo Guerra said Poe’s lawyers and Fornier — along with lawyers Ma. Jeannette Tecson, Felix Desiderio Jr., Gertrudo de Leon and Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) Cagayan de Oro chapter president Zoilo Antonio Velez — are scheduled to submit written summaries of their arguments today.

Poe, for his part, called on the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC) to conduct an investigation into the alleged tampering of his birth records.

"Gusto ko nga makita nila ‘yun (I want them to see it)," Poe told reporters during his campaign in Aparri, Cagayan yesterday.

Asked why he wanted the PAGC to conduct the investigation, Poe simply replied that "he had a bad feeling about this (issue)."

"Basta, may pagkakaiba, iba ang pakiramdam ko (It doesn’t matter, there’s an apparent discrepancy and I’ve got a bad feeling about this)," Poe said.

Poe said he saw his birth records last year when he applied for a passport.

The PAGC under chairman Dario Rama has urged the movie star to furnish them his birth records and other documents to help in its investigation of Manapat’s alleged forgery. - With Paolo Romero