AFTER casting doubt on Senator Grace Poe’s status as a natural-born Filipino, Liberal Party standard bearer Manuel Roxas II said Friday the presidential frontrunner deliberately hid problems about her citizenship from them when they were recruiting her to be his running mate.
“She concealed, kept this a secret from us. We presumed regularity and we were sincere in inviting her to be part of the straight path. We did not know about these issues until congressman Toby Tiangco revealed [them,]” Roxas said in Biliran province Thursday.
Poe, whom Roxas and President Benigno Aquino III had unsuccessfully tried to recruit as their party’s vice presidential candidate earlier this year, immediately denied Roxas’ allegation.
She recalled that as early as June last year, the issue about her citizenship had already come out in the papers when another party alleged that she, as a foundling, was not a natural-born Filipino citizen.
She also remembered that even then, some news stories focused on the residency issue.
“When Mar and I talked, he told me that he also lived in America for years and he worked there,” said Poe.
Poe said she never kept her status a secret, and that Roxas, then Interior secretary, could have found out everything about her background.
“Let us just ignore [him]. The discussion here is what we can do for our country,” she said.
Following a decision by the Commission on Elections 2nd Division that disqualified Poe because she did not meet the residency requirements for being president, the senator accused Roxas and Vice President Jejomar Binay of conspiring to remove her from the presidential race by having their people file disqualification cases against her.
Both Roxas and Binay have denied the accusation.
Poe on Thursday acknowledged that she would have been in a better position had she decided to run as Roxas’ vice president.
“Maybe it’s true that I would’ve have an easier time had I allied with them. And I was aware when I made that decision to run. I knew that… these problems wouldn’t be here had I decided to run for vice president,” Poe said.
Roxas earlier pointed out that it was Binay’s United Nationalist Alliance that first raised questions about Poe’s status as a natural-born citizen and her residency.
He added that Poe had nobody to blame but herself for her misfortunes.
“Wasn’t it her lawyer who filed her papers? Is she the one who took oath as an American citizen? It’s her responsibility to explain herself there. I’m not the one to blame here,” Roxas said.
“Poe should live up to her decisions in life instead of finding fault with others because I don’t have any involvement here,” he added.
Roxas also denied Escudero’s claims that lawyer Estrella Elamparo, who filed the disqualification case against Poe before the Comelec, was connected to his staunch supporter, former Defense secretary Avelino Cruz. “
“There’s no truth to his allegations that I have knowledge to any case filed against Poe. By the way, when the case was filed at the [Senate Electoral Tribunal], did you hear anything from me? Nothing. I respected it. Also, I do respect what the Comelec has said,” Roxas said.
In a separate statement, Cruz said he had no connections at all with Elamparo.
“That is pure fiction. I have no connection with Attorney Elamparo or the Divina Law Office. I’ve never met her,” Cruz said.
On Friday, Poe’s lawyer George Garcia said the Comelec did not consider more than 400 pages of documentary evidence presented by the camp Poe to prove her residency in the Philippines since 2005.
Poe has said she would appeal the decision before the Comelec en banc, and if necessary, take her battle to the Supreme Court because she is fighting for the people’s right to choose their leader.
Garcia presented to media one of the most pertinent documents—a questionnaire that Poe accomplished at the US Embassy in Manila in 2011. In the document, Poe wrote that she had been residing in the Philippines since 2005, and thus, must be allowed to renounce her US citizenship.
Months after the death of her father, Fernando Poe Jr., in December 2004, Poe went back to the Philippines with the intention to stay in the country for good. Poe enrolled her kids in Philippine schools. She and her husband also bought properties and found employment. Poe has also voted in two national elections, her camp said.
“This proves that Senator Poe sought domicile in the country. Why would you get a TIN (Tax Identification Number) if you had no intention to work here? Or enroll your kids here if you had no intention to stay here?” Garcia said. “This shows that Senator Poe had no intention to lie or mislead in her CoC.”
Garcia said they presented at least 400 pages of documents to prove Poe’s domicile but the 2nd Division did not discuss a single one in the decision it issued. The commissioners clearly committed a grave abuse of discretion, he said.
But legal experts said Poe might have a hard time reversing the 2nd Division decision.
Election lawyer Romulo Macalintal, litigation lawyer Raymond Fortun, and poll lawyer Carlo Vistan agreed with the Comelec decision to disqualify Poe in the 2016 presidential elections, saying it was grounded on factual and legal considerations.
“The decision of the Second Division appears to be supported by factual and legal arguments, especially on the residency issue, where Poe admitted a residency of only six years and six months when she filed his COC for the May 2013 elections,” Macalintal said in a statement.
Fortun said he does not see Comelec 2nd Division reversing its decision.
“From experience, a unanimous decision is already an ominous sign. It is highly unlikely that these same commissioners would change their mind,” he added.
According to Vistan, the 2nd Division’s decision might even affect the outcome of the three other disqualification petitions lodged against Poe before the Comelec’s 1st Division.
The three legal experts all agreed that Poe would need new and compelling evidence that would convince the Comelec en banc to reverse the 2nd Division’s ruling.