Poe camp slams accuser for bitterness over SET ruling

MANILA, Philippines - The camp of Sen. Grace Poe yesterday challenged Rizalito David to produce evidence that will prove she is not a natural-born Filipino rather than criticize the majority decision of the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) that junked David’s petition to unseat the senator.

Poe’s lawyer George Garcia said the SET was clear in establishing that Poe, a foundling and presidential candidate, is a natural-born Filipino, hence eligible to continue serving as senator.

He maintained that Poe was presumed a natural Filipino because she did not have to do anything to acquire her status. 

“And yet, Mr. David kept on blaming the SET member-senators who voted in favor of Senator Poe and calling their decision political,” Garcia said.

“It is becoming more and more obvious that Mr. David has nothing to stand on –that all his allegations about this foundling not being a natural-born Filipino citizen are just part of a sinister plot that he and his cohorts concocted,” he added.

Garcia said David should just move on and “focus his efforts instead to finding incontrovertible proof that Sen. Poe is not a natural-born Filipino.” 

“In fact, that would be a life-changing search. Even Senator Poe would be interested in that. So why doesn’t Mr. David do all of us a favor, stop assailing the SET and embark on a search for Sen. Poe’s parents. And since he appears to be obsessed with Sen. Poe’s foreign blood, then maybe he should start making more frequent trips abroad to embark on such a search,” Garcia added. 

The lawyer also lambasted David for disparaging the SET decision, saying that “it was not a political decision but a clear-cut judgment based on prevailing jurisprudence.”

SET members Sens. Vicente Sotto III and Bam Aquino also lashed out at David for saying that the SET decision was a political move.

Sotto and Aquino, along with Sens. Loren Legarda, Cynthia Villar and Pia Cayetano, voted to junk the case against Poe last Tuesday.   

“Ask him if the SET is a political institution or not. If not, let us change what the Constitution said that six senators should be part of the SET. Let us replace them with appointed officials, not elected officials,” Sotto said.

Sen. Aquino, a cousin of President Aquino, said the political move would have been to disqualify Poe “because I am with the Liberal Party and supporting former interior secretary (Manuel) Roxas.”

“For me, this decision was beyond politics and to an extent, beyond Sen. Poe. The only issue that we tackled was whether foundlings are natural-born citizens or not. What weighed heaviest for me was that an adverse decision would have a negative effect on the thousands of foundlings in our country, stripping them of rights and privileges they already were enjoying. And surely, we shouldn’t marginalize the already marginalized.” 

SET chairman Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio and SET members Justices Teresita Leonardo-de Castro and Arturo Brion and Sen. Nancy Binay said Poe should be disqualified but they lost by just one vote.

Cayetano was the so-called swing-vote in the close fight.

Sen. Francis Escudero, Poe’s running mate, described the decision of the three Supreme Court justices as discriminatory against foundlings.

“Essentially, what they are saying is that foundlings are stateless. According to one of the justices, a foundling cannot have greater rights than someone whose parents are known when it comes to citizenship,” Escudero said, referring to Carpio. 

Escudero argued that Poe is a natural-born Filipino citizen as provided for in international and domestic laws, which state that a foundling found in the Philippines is presumed to have Filipino biological parents. 

He said that pronouncements such as a foundling like Poe not being a citizen of the Philippines are a violation of an individual’s basic and inalienable human right to bear a nationality from birth. 

Escudero said Carpio, De Castro and Brion should inhibit themselves from deliberation if the SET verdict dismissing the disqualification case is challenged before the Supreme Court.

Cayetano, on the other hand, was reportedly torn between choosing to uphold her advocacy of protecting children’s rights and political alignments, since disqualifying Poe would give her brother, Sen. Alan Cayetano, a reason to convince Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte to run for president.

Alan has been eyeing Duterte to be his running mate for the 2016 polls.

Duterte: SET decision playing politics

Duterte slammed the SET decision, saying the senators who voted in favor of Poe were politicking.

“It clearly shows that the senator members of the SET are playing politics while the justices are basing their decision on the Philippine Constitution which clearly states that a presidential aspirant must be a natural-born Filipino citizen,” Duterte said. 

Duterte said that with the SET’s decision, the option for him to run for president in the May 2016 election is now open. 

The Dec. 10 deadline draws near for Duterte to be the substitute of Partido ng Demokratikong Pilipino-Laban (PDP-Laban) presidential candidate Martin Diño, who earlier withdrew his candidacy to give way to Duterte. – With Edith Regalado, Marvin Sy