FPJ’s dad acknowledged him as son — Dolphy

LEGAZPI CITY — The country’s top comedian Rodolfo Quizon, popularly known as Dolphy, may be the ace presidential contender Fernando Poe Jr. needs to finally resolve the dispute concerning his citizenship.

Quizon said he and Poe’s late father, Allan Fernando Poe — an actor himself — were close friends during the local film industry’s early days.

The elder Poe usually brought the young Fernando Poe with him to film shootings at the studios of Royal Productions and Palaris Productions in San Francisco del Monte in Quezon City during the late 1940s, the 75-year-old Quizon said.

"He was always at the studio when he was still a youngster and his hair was very curly then," Quizon told reporters. "He was always with him, during shootings the child was always there."

Quizon, who started his career during the Japanese military occupation, said it was Poe’s father who introduced him to show business.

Asked whether the elder Poe ever acknowledged the child as his son, Quizon said: "Of course!"

The Supreme Court is currently deliberating on three petitions filed by several lawyers seeking Poe’s disqualification from the May presidential race on citizenship grounds.

The tribunal is weighing arguments about whether Poe is in fact a natural-born Filipino after his birth out of wedlock to an American mother and a father born early last century during the US occupation of the Philippines.

The Constitution stipulates that the President should be a natural-born Filipino citizen.

Any ruling would be subject to appeal but there are fears of mass unrest by Poe’s supporters if he is disqualified.

The petitioners contend that Poe should have assumed the American citizenship of his mother because he was born out of wedlock.

The prevailing law at the time stipulated that children born out of wedlock assumed the citizenship of the mother, they say.

One of the petitioners, lawyer Victorino Fornier, said Poe’s father was married to one Paulita Gomez.

However, four legal experts invited by the Supreme Court to render their opinion, said Poe can be considered a natural-born citizen and therefore may seek the presidency as long as he can prove his filiation with his father who is a Filipino citizen.

They said there were many ways to prove filiation aside from public acknowledgment by the father.

Quizon said he would testify if necessary to prove Poe’s citizenship.

He did not know any Paulita Gomez, Quizon said. "But I knew the mother of Ronnie’s father, Aling Marta. I saw her at the studio and during film shootings."— Paolo Romero