No plot necessary

Aside from filing appeals for the reversal of unfavorable decisions concerning her citizenship and qualification to run for president, all of which are natural courses of action for anyone so situated, Grace Poe has chosen to fight her predicament in only three ways, none of which are effective and substantive: 1) By playing to the emotions; 2) By sour-graping: and 3) By assigning malice to others.

In playing to the emotions, Poe wants to make it appear that any attempt to have her disqualified on account of her being a foundling is a declaration of war against all foundlings and a manifestation of society's scorn for those whose misfortune it is to have been abandoned by their parents at birth. That is, of course, a very big lie.

Playing victim is old hat, a nifty theatrical way of twisting the facts. It is not because she is a foundling that she is being disqualified. It is because, as a foundling, it cannot be determined with absolute certainty who her parents really were. No one knows if her parents were indeed Filipinos or were in fact Syrian. It is not that she is a foundling that she is being disqualified but because of her being a foundling. To the unfettered mind, the difference is crystal clear.

In reacting to two successive Comelec decisions disqualifying her as a candidate for president - the Comelec second division initially voted unanimously to disqualify her, then the first division voted 2-1 to do the same - Poe said the Comelec was being unfair in choosing to ignore the facts. What those facts are - she did not say. It seemed to suffice that she accuses Comelec of something and then not saying what that something is.

Be that as it may, it would be truly interesting to find out how Poe would have reacted if the Comelec had given her the decision she wanted. Would Poe have praised the Comelec to high heavens? Would she have described the poll body as the fairest in the universe? Poe should just have accepted each adverse decision with the calm dignity of a worthy leader. Short of that, and one is just another unworthy sour grape bitching at her fate.

Still that is not all. The worst manner with which Poe has chosen to fight her disqualification is to ascribe malice on those she claims have hatched a plot to remove her from the presidential run picture. Poe apparently thinks too highly of herself. Just watch her language. She claims her adoptive father Fernando Poe Jr. the actor was cheated in his own run for president and that the reason she is running is to preserve his legacy. What legacy is she talking about - the role of Panday?

There is really no need for any or all of her political opponents to hatch a plot against Poe because there is no way Poe can be allowed to run for as long as the Philippine Constitution remains the effective, unassailable, and respected fundamental law that everyone was told as early as grade school to respect and obey at all times. And that constitution is very clear on her case - as a foundling whose parents are unknown, she does not have the natural-born citizenship to qualify her.

It is the circumstances of her own birth, sad as they are, that disqualified her without need for any sinister plot from anybody. Nevertheless, even granting Poe her delusions of being the target of sinister plots - so what if there are? That still would not detract from the fact that, as a foundling whose parents are unknown and whose citizenship status therefore cannot be ascertained, she is disqualified by the Constitution to run for president.

This obstinate refusal to accept and respect provisions in the Constitution that are very clear and understandable even to the uneducated does not speak well of a person who is seeking to lead the country as its president. More so since that person is expected to swear to protect and defend the Constitution, the very same one whose provisions she casually dismisses for standing in the way of her ambitious interests.