SENATOR Grace Poe’s lawyer on Tuesday appealed to the Supreme Court justices to overturn the two decisions of the Commission on Elections canceling her Certificate of Candidacy and allow her to run for president in the May elections.
Alex Poblador insisted that the poll body committed “grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction” when it ruled that Poe committed “material misrepresentations” in her CoC regarding her citizenship and residency.
“The Comelec decisions should be reversed for having been issued with grave abuse of discretion,” Poblador said.
During the oral arguments presided over by Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, Poblador also insisted that Poe was qualified to run for president because she was a natural-born Filipino citizen and had lived in the Philippines for more than 10 years.
He argued that, based on international laws, an abandoned child of unknown parents was a citizen of the country where the child had been found contrary to her opponents’ position that a foundling is stateless.
Poblador said Poe, who was found in a church in Jaro, Iloilo, when she was an infant, had intended to permanently reside in the country in 2004 right after her father died.
He noted that May 2005, when Poe returned to the Philippines, should be the reckoning day of the start of her residence in the country.
He said Poe “acted in good faith” when she stated in her CoC that she was a natural-born citizen and would have been a resident of the Philippines for “10 years and 11 months” by this year’s elections on May 9.
Contrary to the Comelec’s claim, Poblador said, there was “no deliberate intent” on her part to mislead the electorate on her citizenship and residency.
He maintained that Poe, although a foundling, was a natural-born citizen based on the generally accepted principle of international law that presumed foundlings to be natural-born citizens of the country where they were found.
Poblador said Poe’s accusers failed to establish a prima facie case that her parents were not Filipinos since the “burden of proof is in the first instance with the party who initiates action.”
“The burden of proof is on the [accusers] because [Poe] is presumed natural-born. Foundlings are Filipinos because their parents are presumed Filipinos. She is a natural-born Filipino,” Poblador said.