It’s official. Grace Poe-Llamanzares, the former American
citizen daughter of the famous Filipino celebrity couple is now a candidate for
President of the Republic this May 2016. The Supreme Court decision is
mind-boggling especially for me a law student as it goes against to what is
Constitutionally written which as far as I know is straightforward and is very
much not very open to different interpretation. According to Article VII Sec 2
of the Constitution that a candidate for the Presidency should be a
natural-born citizen of the country and must have resided in the Philippines
for 10 years up until the time of the election. Both qualifications are the focal
point of the controversy that the candidacy of Grace Poe finally hurdled via a
9-6 vote by the Supreme Court en banc decision. It came also as a surprise that
the 3 justices that were part of the Senator Electoral Tribunal that voted
against the eligibility of Grace Poe as a candidate ended up as minority vote
when it came to the en banc decision on the same matter.
As
opposed I am to the outcome on this matter, as a lawyer-in-training I have to
give my due respect to the Supreme Court whose primary responsibility is to
exercise judicial powers which on an issue as controversial as this one would
make any law practitioner exhaust all of the acquired knowledge in order to
come up with a decision. As a young aspiring law practitioner my knowledge of
the law is not yet extensive but to give my two cents on the matter I would
like to express my opinion in favor of how the Supreme Court decided even though
it may have been a split one.
The
Grace Poe candidacy rests on two main points, natural born citizenship and
residency. On the issue of natural born citizenship Grace Poe should be grateful
to the Supreme Court as they showed compassion on this matter. The Constitution
was framed in a way that foundlings were visibly excluded thus were not
included on those births that the Constitution grants natural born citizenship
upon. Grace Poe is a foundling and under normal human circumstance would be a
situation that is very unfavorable for any person but with the Constitution
framed the way it is the application of the law becomes a matter of
interpretation as foundlings are clearly excluded from the provisions of citizenship
under Article IV of the Constitution. I commend the Supreme Court decision on
showing the spirit of the law rather than enforcing a literal interpretation of
the law. It shows more wisdom of the law those who voted on the literal
interpretation of the provision as it would clearly show how Grace Poe is not a
natural born citizen of the country but then again it shows compassion on the
part of those who voted in favor of natural born citizenship of Grace Poe as it
shows that the law of the land promotes equal protection and would grant favor
to citizens that were dealt unfavorable conditions through no fault of their own
such as Grace Poe’s situation as a foundling. Wisdom of the law deserves a lot of respect
but it is also commendable to drive that wisdom in a way that it would show
favor to those who are oppressed as our laws guarantees equal protection as
would a foundling wherein Grace Poe is one.
As for
the 2nd issue of residency I would have expected that this one would
have been dealt with less interpretation and a more direct application of the
law. But going through the Supreme Court’s rationale on this issue even on this
front they gave the petitioner Poe more leeway in hurdling this portion of the
said controversy. The courts decided in favor on the acts of good faith by the
petitioner Poe and with it the overt acts supporting that the mistakes were
made in good faith instead of viewing the situation plainly. By viewing the
situation plainly and in a straight forward manner the decision could have
tilted into an unfavorable one for the petitioner as the information she
provided was done under oath and without considering her overt acts the law would
clearly dictate that Poe does not meet the eligibility for residency. But then
again the Supreme Court decision gave consideration on this circumstances that
showed petitioner’s act of establishing a domicile of choice and accompanied
with liberal interpretation of the law showed that petitioner Poe made a
mistake in good faith in stating the date of when she started her residency
here in the Philippines even though it was well before the time she re-acquired
her Filipino citizenship. My two cents on the matter is that Grace Poe’s intent
showed that she wanted to re-establish her domicile here as she was driven by
the effects of the death of his adopted father and to that effect she wanted to
take care of her adopted mother. It showed a lot of Grace Poe’s Filipino
character wherein the nature of her decision to re-establish domicile here in
the Philippines is very family-oriented. Also a minor note on the residency
issue, even if the date when Grace Poe established her residency was not
adjusted it would have made her short of a few months in meeting the residency
requirement. According to the book of Isagani Cruz that the rationale of the
10-year residency is that it would make the candidate knowledgeable of the
relevant issues that heeds to be addressed should the candidate win the post. Does
the knowledge that the few months that Grace Poe would have gained be
substantial enough as against someone who did reside for the full 10 years?
The issue of Grace Poe’s candidacy is now done
but this victory is just a means to an end for her. Looking ahead the decision
is still in the hand of the electoral process this coming May. Grace Poe
handled the situation with a lot of character and it really showed her
eagerness to become a servant of the Filipino people. She showed traits of a
true Filipino with the way she acted throughout her controversial residency and
in doing so gained the favor of the majority of the Supreme Court. But my
little knowledge of the law still says that that is not enough in considering
who the next President of the state should be.
So is
it Grace Poe for President in May? I don’t think so.
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