As the Supreme Court is set to deliberate on the petitions of Senator Grace Poe seeking to reverse the Commission on Elections decision cancelling her Certificate of Candidacy for the May 9 polls, an election lawyer on Sunday asked the tribunal to uphold her natural-born citizenship despite being a foundling.
Lawyer Romulo Macalintal stressed that the 15-member bench should render judgment in favor of Poe to show its compassion to the foundlings, like her, “who should not be blamed for being born of parents who have not compassion at all for their sinless child.”
“Justice without compassion is no justice at all,” Macalintal said, citing an SC decision in October 2005 reinstating the retirement benefits of a Regional Trial Court judge whom it previously dismissed for gross misconduct
“Indeed, if the SC could be compassionate in rendering justice to an erring judge, then with more compassion should justice be rendered in favor of foundlings seeking to be recognized as a citizen of the country and not to be treated as a “stateless” individual in the country where he or she was found,” he added.
Macalintal argued that if the tribunal could extend its care and sympathy to one who had violated the norms of conduct of the judiciary, “with more compassion should it look into the case of an innocent foundling who should not be blamed for being born of parents who have no compassion at all for their sinless child.”
According to him, to deny foundlings recognition as our “fellow citizen” is tantamount to imposing on them a penalty for the crime committed by their parents.
Besides, Macalintal stressed that there is basis in the Constitution that recognizes foundlings as natural-born Filipinos.
Macalintal said it is not that difficult to recognize foundlings as citizens of the Philippines because Section 2, Article II of the 1987 Constitution mandates that our country adopts the generally accepted principles of international law as part of the law of the land.
He cited one international principle enunciated under the 1961 United Nations Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, which rule that a foundling “is considered to have been born within that territory of parents possessing the nationality of that State.”
“Note that the ones recognized as “possessing the citizenship of the country where the foundling was found” are the “parents” of the foundlings not the foundlings themselves. And since their parents are recognized under international law as citizens of the country where the foundlings are found, those foundlings found in the Philippines are not only Filipino citizens, but also “natural-born Filipino citizens” because their parents are deemed Filipino citizens under international law, which, as stated, is part of the laws of the Philippines. This is so because under our constitution those born of Filipino mother or father are “natural-born” Filipino citizens, he said.
Macalintal made the statement as the high court will start en banc deliberation on Poe’s disqualification cases on Tuesday after all the parties have submitted their respective memoranda today.
Last week, Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno gave Poe, the Comelec and private parties five days or until today, within which to submit their respective memoranda, after which Poe’s petitions are deemed submitted for resolution.
During the five-day oral arguments, Sereno along with Associate Justices Marvic Leonen and Francis Jardeleza appeared to have sympathized with Poe’s flight and raised rights of foundlings. All three areappointees of President Aquino in the 15-member bench.
Sereno stressed that in the 1976 Duncan case and the 1963 Ellis case involving foundlings, the SC ruled that the child in the two cases are presumed to be Filipino citizens even in the absence of evidence that their parents were Filipinos.
Jardeleza, for his part, said that the Comelec may have violated the right of Poe to due process when it cancelled her certificate of candidacy for the presidential race in May 9 elections.
Jardeleza questioned the factual basis of which the Commission on Elections grounded its disqualification of the senator for being a foundling.