Justice Carpio: Grace Poe is not natural-born, but naturalized Filipino citizen

(Updated 2:47 p.m.) Senator Grace Poe can be considered a Filipino under international customary law but only as a naturalized citizen and not as natural-born citizen, according to Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio.

 

Carpio said this during Monday's oral arguments on a petition filed with the Senate Electoral Tribunal by defeated 2013 senatorial candidate Rizalito David against Poe, a foundling adopted by celebrity couple Fernando Poe Jr. and Susan Roces.

 

According to the petitioner, Poe should be disqualified from the Senate for failing to meet the requirement under Section 3, Article VI of the 1987 Philippine Constitution that requires a candidate to be a natural-born citizen.

 

During interpellation, Carpio stressed that customary international law can be followed so long as it does not violate provisions of the Constitution.

 

"We do not follow international customary law because our Constitution has primacy. Although under international law, we have a commitment to conform to customary international law by amending the Constitution," Carpio said.

 

However, in the absence of a law, an international customary law can be applied, he added.

 

"So if right now, there is no law promulgated by Congress that foundlings can be deemed citizens of the Philippines, customary international law can supply that gap?" Carpio asked David's lawyer Manuelito Luna, who answered in the affirmative.

 

"If there is a customary international law saying foundlings can be deemed citizens of the country where they were found, we apply that under the principle of incorporation. It is deemed as municipal law," Carpio said.

 

The senior magistrate, however, quickly added: "But you are still a naturalized citizen, not natural born. Because if customary international law says a foundling  is natural born, it will violate our Constitution and we cannot apply it here."

DNA testing
 

The international customary laws being pertained by the magistrate were the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which states that all human beings, including foundlings, have a right to nationality; and the UN Convention relating to the status of Stateless Persons.

 

"So we have solved the problem counsel? You will agree with me that Senator Poe [is] at least a citizen of the Philippines," Carpio asked Luna, who answered, "Yes."

 

Carpio, however, added that any decision on citizenship is never final.

 

"If tomorrow you happen to find out by DNA matching that your parent is Filipino, you can still prove that you are natural-born," said the magistrate.

Luna told the tribunal that the senator was undergoing DNA tests to prove her Filipino lineage.

The lawyer said the findings would be available in two weeks.

Rights of foundlings

 

For her part, Senator Loren Legarda asked about the rights of foundlings in the Philippines when seeking employment or owning land properties.

 

"Are you foreclosing all these seemingly ordinary occupations and hopes to foundlings?," Legarda asked Luna.

 

"We are not. That is just the law. There is actually a discrimination [between a foundling a non-foundling]... but the discrimination is caused by the Constitution itself, not by petitioner. it is the result of our laws," the lawyer said.

 

Luna said it is the Constitution that prescribes candidates aspiring the highest national positions to be natural-born citizens, and those seeking local positions to be at least naturalized citizens.

 

Poe, a foundling from Jaro, Iloilo in 1968, migrated to the US to pursue a college degree. She eventually found work and had a family there. In 2010, she renounced her US citizenship before being appointed as chair of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board.

 

But Luna told the SET members: "She is not natural born so she cannot re-acquire something she did not possess."

US passport

 

Meanwhile, Sen. Cynthia Villar asked if Luna was aware whether Poe had used her US passport after she renounced her US citizenship in 2010.

 

Luna said that based on the US Department's State Bureau of Consular Affairs, Poe may have used her passport in September 2011, the month her passport expired. Luna said the lawmaker could even have used her US passport beyond September 2011, but did not elaborate.

Poe on Wednesday declared her intention to run for president in next year's elections. A day after, she announced that Senator Francis Escudero would be her running mate.

In the lates Social Weather Stations survey results, Poe remains the top choice for president.

In the survey published late Sunday night by BusinessWorld, Poe's rating rose to 47 percent in the poll conducted from September 2 to 5, five points better than her second quarter result.

Former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, meanwhile, surged to second with 39 percent from 21 percent last June. The former Interior Secretary was anointed by President Benigno Aquino III as his preferred successor last July 31.

Vice President Jejomar Binay slipped to third with 35 percent, one point higher than his June result.  — RSJ/NB, GMA News