Poe hopes SC will uphold UN declaration of human rights in DQ case

With the disqualification case against her now pending before the Supreme Court, presidential candidate Senator Grace Poe is hoping the high tribunal will respect the rights of foundlings like her and the right of Filipinos to choose their leader.

The senator said she was confident that the SC would uphold the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and consider these rights to be in force in the country.

“We all have the same rights under the law. The law should be the same for everyone. We should be able to expect fair treatment from a fair court. At the end of the day, I trust that the Supreme Court recognizes the right of every Filipino to choose his leader,” Poe said in a press statement.

“Lahat ng tao ay isinilang na may karapatan sa mundong ito, mahirap man o mayaman. Kaya dapat ay kasali ang lahat at walang maiiwan sa buhay.  Kasama dito ang karapatang pumili ng kanyang lider,” she said.

Poe made the remark as the world observed International Human Rights Day on December 10. The human rights declaration was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly 67 years ago in Paris.

The Philippines was among the UN members that drafted the Declaration, which is hailed as the most important agreement to emerge from World War II.

Poe’s camp has often cited the declaration in defending the her right to run for president despite being a foundling.

Poe was abandoned at the Jaro church in Iloilo and was later adopted by actor Fernando Poe Jr. and actress Susan Roces.

“We all have the right to a nationality, the right to belong to a country. I have always said that abandoned children are entitled to the same rights that all people enjoy. The circumstances of their birth do not make them lesser humans,” Poe said.

The Senate Electoral Tribunal, voting 5-4, has junked the disqualification case petitioner Rizalito David filed against Poe. He is questioning Poe's status as a natural-born Filipino citizen because she is a foundling.

David, however, has brought his case before the SC.

Poe has yet to determine who her biological parents are.

She is also facing four disqualification petitions before the Commission on Elections. The poll body’s Second Division has already ruled that she is disqualified to run for president but she has appealed it before the Comelec en banc.

If the en banc’s decision will not be in her favor, Poe is expected to bring the case to the SC.

Senator Francis Escudero expressed confidence the SC would rule in favor of Poe as it did when her father, actor Fernando Poe Jr., ran for president in 2004.

“Ang assumption namin, dahil nasa panig namin ang batas at katotohanan, ay papayagan at papahintulutan si Senator Grace. At kung pagbabatayan ang Korte Suprema, yung naunang desisyon ng Court ng 2004 kay FPJ, basically, ang sinabi ng Korte nun, hayaan nating taumbayan ang magdesisyon,” said Escudero, the elder Poe's campaign spokesman in 2004.

“Hayaan at payagan s’yang tumakbo. Ika nga ng Supreme Court, which I often quote, the Court said in that case through former Chief Justice Rey Puno, 'We cannot leave to the unelected members of this Court the power and right to decide who the next president will be. That decision is best left to the sovereign Filipino people',” he added. —NB, GMA News