THE camp of independent presidential candidate Senator Grace Poe will hurdle the disqualification case filed against her amid the negative results of the DNA tests on two of her possible closest relatives, her spokesman said Sunday.
Valenzuela Mayor Rex Gatchalian said Poe volunteered to go through DNA testing to strengthen her legal anchor.
But he maintained they will win the case on at least three legal grounds.
“First, the Constitution provides that international law principles are part of national laws. Under international law, a foundling follows the citizenship of the country where he or she was born,” Gatchalian said.
He made his statement even as the Senate Electoral Tribunal is set to resolve the disqualification case filed against Poe and which seeks her ouster from the Senate for not being a natural-born Filipino citizen.
The nine-member tribunal has scheduled on Nov. 17 its voting on the disqualification petition filed by Rizalito David in relation to Poe’s election as a senator in the 2013 polls.
SET secretary Irene Guevarra said date was agreed upon during the SET meeting last Friday in a hotel in Manila.
Gatchalian insisted that the treatment of foundlings was also reflected in the 1935 Constitution.
He said their second legal argument was that Poe did not have to do anything to perfect her citizenship. He noted that the court allowed her adoption by the late actor Fernando Poe Jr. and his wife actress Susan Roces.
“The court would not have allowed her to be adopted if she were a foreigner,” Gatchalian said.
Gatchalian said Poe, who has been leading in all presidential surveys, will still undergo a DNA matching test with more possible relatives, but that would not be for legal purposes but for her own consumption. He said Poe was still looking for her biological parents.
Still, losing senatorial candidate David said the negative results of the senator’s DNA test would not help her.
“The DNA testing will have a negative impact in so far as her already precarious defenses are concerned,” he said.
His lawyer Manuel Luna said the negative results of the DNA test would affect how the Senate Electoral Tribunal will resolve the disqualification case.
But political analyst Ronald Simbulan says the negative findings on Poe’s DNA tests may have no effect on her presidential bid. He says the Filipino people have long accepted her as a natural-born Filipino citizen when they voted for her in the 2013 senatorial race that she topped.
She obtained over 20 million votes, the most number of votes ever recorded for a senator.
“For those questioning her being a natural-born Filipino, I think it’s too late in the day because that was settled when she ran for senator,” Gatchalian said.