Lost and reacquired

To better understand and appreciate the disqualification case of Poe-Llamanzares, it is important to know the pertinent facts proven or admitted and the law/s applicable thereto. And these facts are clearly set forth in the separate dissenting opinion of Supreme Court (SC) Associate Justice Arturo D. Brion which are substantially similar to the findings of SC Justices Antonio Carpio and Teresita Leonardo-De Castro, the other members of the Senate Electoral Tribunal. In brief, they are as follows:

1. On Sept. 8, 1968, Grace Poe was found abandoned by a certain Edgardo Militar in the font of the Jaro Parish Church, Iloilo. Edgardo later turned her over to Emiliano Militar and his wife, residents of the same town;

2.  On Nov. 28, 1968, Emiliano registered Grace Poe’s birth with the Office of the Civil Registrar, Jaro Iloilo, as a foundling under the name of Mary Grace Natividad Contreras Militar;

3. Sometime in 1974, the spouses Ronald Allan Poe (a.k.a. Fernando Poe Jr.) and Jesusa L. Sonora (a.k.a. Susan Roces) filed before the Municipal Trial Court of San Juan (MTC), a petition to adopt Grace Poe;

4.  On May 13, 1974, the MTC approved the petition and ordered, among others that Grace Poe’s name be changed to “Mary Grace Natividad Sonora Poe” from “Mary Grace Natividad Contreras Militar”;

5.  When she turned 18 years old, Grace Poe applied for registration as a voter in Greenhills, San Juan MM. On Dec. 13, 1986 the Comelec issued in her favor Voter’s ID for Precinct 196, Greenhills S.J. MM.;

6.  On April 4, 1988, she obtained from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), Philippine Passport No. F927287 and went to the US for her tertiary studies. She graduated in 1991 with a degree of Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Boston College, Chestnut Hill Massachusetts.

7.  On July 27, 1991, Grace Poe married Teodoro Misael Daniel V. Llamanzares, a Filipino-American citizen, at the Sanctuario de San Antonio Parish, Greenhills S.J. On July 29, 1991 she went to live with her husband in the US although she renewed her Philippine passport on April 5, 1993 and May 19, 1998. They begot three children, namely Brian Daniel, born in the US in 1992; Hannah Mackenzie born in the Philippines in 1998 and Jesusa Anika likewise born in the Philippines in 2004;

8.  On Oct. 18, 2001, Grace Poe became an American citizen through naturalization and subsequently obtained US Passport No. 17037793. Since then, she returned to the Philippines on numerous occasions often under a Balikbayan Visa or under the Philippine Government’s Balikbayan program. Among such trips were on April 8, 2004 when she came and stayed here for three months or up to July 8, 2004 to give moral support to Fernando Poe Jr. in his bid to be the country’ president; and on Dec. 13, 2004 when her father slipped into a coma staying here up to Feb. 3, 2005 for her father’s funeral and settlement of estate;

9. On May 24, 2005, Grace Poe returned to the Philippines with the intention of resettling here for good. Thus on July 10, 2006, she filed with the Bureau of Immigration (BI), a sworn petition to reacquire Philippine citizenship pursuant to R.A. 9225 or the Citizenship Retention and Reacquisition Act of 2003 after taking her Oath of Allegiance under the Act on July 7, 2006;

10. On July 18, 2006, the BI approved her petition for reacquisition of Philippine Citizenship and for the derivative citizenship of her children.  She registered as a voter on Aug. 31, 2006 in Santa Lucia, S.J;

11.  On Oct. 13, 2009, Grace Poe obtained her Philippine Passport No XX473199. But between July 18, 2006 when BI approved her petition for reacquisition of Philippine citizenship and this date (Oct. 13, 2009) when she obtained a new Philippine passport, Grace Poe still used her American passport on several occasion in her trips abroad where the BI stamped her status as RC (Resident Citizen);

12.  It was only on Oct. 20, 2010 when she executed an “Affidavit of Renunciation of Allegiance to the United States of America and renunciation of American Citizenship” in compliance with the legal requirements for her appointment as chairman of the MTRCB.

Based on these facts, Justice Brion voted to disqualify Poe for the position of Senator of the Republic of the Philippines. Justice Brion’s view which is substantially similar to the view of Justices Carpio and De Castro, is that, (1) “as a foundling whose parents are both unknown, Poe’s citizenship cannot be established, recognized or presumed under the 1935 Constitution,” the prevailing law at the time she was found; and (2) She cannot also be considered a natural born Philippine citizen.

On the first ground, Justice Brion said that (a) the 1935 Constitution did not grant citizenship to children born in the Philippines whose parents were unknown; (b) the presumption – that a foundling’s parents are citizens of the territory where the foundling is found – cannot be recognized as part of the law of the land applicable to her case because it inherently contradicts the term and underlying principles of the 1935 Constitution; (c) the Philippines treaty obligations do not out-rightly grant Philippine citizenship to foundlings but only recognize a foundling’s right to acquire Philippine citizenship.

On the second ground, Justice Brion opined that (a) since Poe’s citizenship cannot be established, recognized or presumed, she had no citizenship to reacquire under R.A 9225; and (b) even if she had been a natural born Philippine citizen, her naturalization in the US rendered her ineligible to be considered natural-born. As a foreigner who had undergone an expedited form of naturalization under R.A. 9225 she had to perform acts to acquire Philippine citizenship, and therefore did not fall under the Constitution’s definition of a natural born citizen.

“As a foundling, respondent’s (Poe’s) parentage is unknown. This is an undisputed point. And because the identities of respondent’s parents are unknown their citizenship cannot as well be determined.

Thus respondent could not have acquired Philippine citizenship under paragraph (3) Section 1 of the Constitution which requires that respondent’s birth father be a Philippine citizen for her to be considered a natural-born Philippine citizen. Neither could respondent have acquired her Philippine citizenship through her mother under paragraph 4 since her birth mother’s identity (and consequently her citizenship) is also unknown.”

Once a natural born Philippine citizen renounces his/her Philippine citizenship, he or she effectively becomes a foreigner in the Philippines with no political right to participate in Philippine politics and governance.”

(Erratum: In last Wednesday’s column, the italicized words in a portion of the first paragraph that follows were inadvertently lost: “In fact, shortly after their wedding, Tess already went to the United States to work as a nurse and just sent money to Ric to buy properties as investment for their future life together.”

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