What began as an ordinary quest for the presidency on the part of Senator Grace Poe has become one of the biggest political controversies in recent times. It is all about whether or not Poe is a natural-born citizen of the Philippines—an indispensable requirement imposed by the Constitution on those who seek election as senator of the republic or president of the country.
Voting 5-4, the Senate Electoral Tribunal allowed Poe to remain in the Senate on the ground that she is a natural-born citizen. Last week, it refused to reconsider its ruling, which means that its decision is ripe for challenge before the Supreme Court—which has a record of reversing rulings of electoral tribunals.
Rizalito David, the petitioner in the SET case, intends to go to the highest tribunal in the land. His case is expected to draw its strength mainly from the unanimous opinion of the three justices of the Supreme Court in the SET to the effect that Poe is not a natural-born citizen. By now, Poe must be aware that from a legal perspective, the unanimous opinion of the three justices is her most serious obstacle to victory in the Supreme Court. It will certainly be an uphill battle for her.
The ruling of the SET notwithstanding, Poe will still have to contend with the four disqualification cases lodged against her in the Commission on Elections. Poe’s success in the SET does not automatically spell easy times for her in the Comelec. Citizenship was the only issue resolved in the SET case. In the Comelec, however, Poe faces issues concerning both her citizenship as well as her residency. If Poe is disqualified by final judgment even on the ground of residency alone, that is enough to derail her presidential ambitions for 2016.
Poe’s recent defeat in the first of the four disqualification cases pending in the Comelec is keeping her supporters occupied with damage control. According to the Comelec, Poe is not a natural-born citizen, and she does not meet the 10-year residency requirement imposed by the Constitution on candidates for president. Although Poe is expected to seek a reconsideration of that ruling, it has already prompted many of her supporters to rethink their options. After all, who wants to waste a vote on one who is ineligible for office?
One strategy so far employed by Poe’s camp is to accuse her adversaries of masterminding the disqualification cases against her. Senator Francis Escudero, whose political alliances are unclear at the moment, is doing precisely that. He says that Manuel “Mar” Roxas II, the pro-administration Liberal Party bet for president, is behind Poe’s recent defeat in the Comelec. More specifically, Escudero claims that the petitioner in the first disqualification case has strong connections with a prominent lawyer retained by Roxas.
Well, what was Escudero expecting in a presidential derby anyway? Even assuming that Roxas is behind the disqualification cases, what is wrong with that? If a candidate is not legally qualified for an elective office, why shouldn’t that candidate face disqualification raps?
One who seeks public office should be ready to face public scrutiny in all forms, including law suits challenging one’s qualifications for the public office sought. The extent of public scrutiny is directly proportional to the importance and prestige of the public office concerned. As a politician, Escudero should have expected that many obstacles will be thrown in Poe’s way, lawsuits included, the moment Poe announced that she will take a crack at the highest office in the land.
Other Poe supporters, like her superfluous spokesman Rex Gatchalian, insist that voters should be the ones to decide whether Poe should be president or not. This strategy relies heavily on the mantra vox populi, vox Dei—the voice of the people is the voice of God. Senator Cynthia Villar, who sided with Poe in the SET case, subscribes to this view.
That sounds good, but it isn’t so. First, the Constitution must be obeyed by both candidates for public office and the sovereign Filipino people as well. Anything outside that doctrine is a sure ticket to lawlessness and anarchy. Second, the separation of church and state mandated by the Constitution renders the invocation of the Divine in a state-run national election highly suspect. Third, the voice of the people does not always produce good results. More often than not, that voice often elects film personalities, comedians and action stars in particular, and other misfits to Congress. Since God is associated with pleasant results, attributing the voice of the people with divine characteristics arguably smacks of a hybrid between blasphemy and the inability to judge a voter’s character.
The biggest surprise comes from President Benigno Aquino III. By urging Poe’s opponents and critics to allow, not the SET or the Comelec, but the electorate to decide Poe’s political fate in the presidential race, Aquino was invoking vox populi to justify disobedience to the Constitution.
Aquino’s invocation of vox populi is uncalled for because his political party, the LP, is supposed to be supporting Roxas. Considering that Poe is ahead of Roxas in the recent surveys (but with Duterte in the lead), that spells serious problems for the Roxas camp.
Actually, Aquino should be the last person to invoke vox populi as an excuse for disobeying the Constitution. Once, when vox populi was successfully invoked during the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos, the 1973 Constitution got “ratified” sans the plebiscite required by the 1935 charter then in force. Under the 1973 Constitution, an authoritarian political order was installed in the country and a strongman administration governed the nation for the next 13 years. That was an era Aquino and his family openly detest up to today.
Now, it’s Aquino invoking vox populi to justify a violation of the Constitution. It looks like the outgoing conductor of the Malacañang orchestra wants his musicians to do a repeat performance of a symphony performed 42 years ago.