Poe camp ready to answer latest disqualification case

MANILA, Philippines - The camp of Sen. Grace Poe maintained yesterday that the senator is ready to face all the disqualification cases filed against her.

This developed as Amado Valdez, former dean of the University of the East College of Law, filed a new case against Poe before the Commission on Elections, claiming that the senator made a material misrepresentation in her certificate of candidacy (COC) for presidency when she indicated that she is a natural-born Filipino citizen and has been a resident of the Philippines for 10 years and 11 months.

Poe had also vowed to attend the hearing today at the Comelec on one of the cases filed against her. The senator was swamped with disqualification cases after she announced her presidential bid for 2016.

Poe’s spokesman, Mayor Rex Gatchalian of Valenzuela City, reiterated anew that Poe has met all requirements regarding her presidential bid.

“Senator Poe respects the right of Dean Amado Valdez to file a petition through Comelec. We reiterate though that Sen. Poe has met all the required prerequisites in seeking the presidency,” Gatchalian said.

The case filed by Valdez is the fifth one against Poe before the Comelec. Another is pending before the Senate Electoral Tribunal.

“On his account that she lost her natural-born Filipino status, the law (RA 9225) is very clear on this. The express provisions of this law substantiates the fact that she was deemed not to have lost her natural born citizenship when she reacquired her Filipino citizenship,” Gatchalian added.

He pointed out that, “the act of repatriation is not naturalization.”

“Like the rest of the petitions, Senator Poe will answer this suit point per point. We are ready to face all these petitions and prove them wrong,” the spokesman said.

Poe challenged her critics to take on more pressing issues that affect the nation rather that dwell on cases aimed at derailing her presidential bid.

Valdez may be an exceptional law dean but Poe thinks he should focus his energies on cases that will consider the greater good of the Filipino people rather than the disqualification cases, Poe said.

Poe also took lightly the latest case filed against her. She said the cases are “unlimited,” just like the promotions of unlimited calls and text of mobile companies.

Valdez filed the new petition against Poe questioning her residency and citizenship.

“It is most respectfully prayed that the COC of Mary Grace Sonora Poe-Llamanzares be cancelled and denied due course and that she be declared disqualified to file COC for any other elective public office requiring as qualification the status of a natural-born Filipino citizen,” the 32-page petition reads.

According to Valdez, Poe lacks the 10-year residency requirement to seek the presidency.

He noted that when Poe filed her COC for senator in the 2013 elections, she indicated that six years and six months as her period of residence, thus, by her own admission she will have resided in the Philippines for only nine years and nine months prior to the May 2016 presidential elections.

“Before mathematics is legal hermeneutics. In a long line of cases, residency is domicile because in addition to physical presence there must be intent to stay or return to a place. As intent lurks in the self-dialogue of the mind, only conduct is the indicia of intent,” he added.

Valdez also said that assuming that Poe was a natural-born citizen, she lost it when she renounced it and took her oath as American citizen on Oct. 18, 2001.

He added that acquiring Filipino citizenship under Republic Act 9225 or the Citizenship Retention and Re-acquisition Act of 2003 while still an American citizen “could not have restored her status as natural born-citizen since her dual allegiance was inimical to national interest.”

He said that RA 9225 is subject to the condition that the citizen seeking public office must comply with the constitutional requirements.

“This petition argues that respondent failed to comply with the citizenship and residency requirements under Article VII, Section 2 of the 1987 Constitution,” Valdez added. – With Sheila Crisostomo, Marvin Sy