Legal experts: Grace Poe’s citizenship woes different from FPJ’s

Two legal experts on Wednesday frowned at Senator Grace Poe's latest political campaign advertisement that compared her disqualification cases with that of her father, the late Ferdinand Poe Jr.

Election lawyer Romulo Macalintal and former Integrated Bar of the Philippines president Vicente Joyas both said that Poe's disqualification cases were different from that of her father, who ran but lost to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in the 2004 presidential election.

"Pareho silang nagkaroon ng disqualification case pero hindi pareho ang case nila dahil ang issue kay Senator Poe ay foundling and residency while FPJ was direct disqualification on citizenship," Macalintal said in a statement.

He said FPJ's parents were known, while the senator is a foundling with unknown parents and only later adopted by the action star and his wife Susan Roces. Macalintal added that the residency issue is present in Poe's case and not in FPJ's.

In the new 30-second ad, four neighbors could be seen discussing the disqualification cases against the lawmaker, with one of them, a woman, insisting, "Lola, kandidato pa rin po siya bilang presidente."

Her male neighbor proclaims, "Eh ganyang-ganyan din yung ginawa nila sa tatay niyang si FPJ eh," as the woman continued: "Pero sa huli, pinayagan ng Korte Suprema na tumakbo."

The man then says: "Parang pelikula lang yan ni FPJ, nagpapabugbog sa simula!"

Poe is currently challenging before the SC an en banc decision by the Comelec upholding the separate disqualification cases filed by Estrella Elamparo and a consolidated one from former Sen. Franciso Tatad, political analyst Antonio Contreras and former law dean Amado Valdez.

In FPJ's 2004 case, the Supreme Court ruled he was a Filipino even if he was an illegitimate son with an American mother. The SC said FPJ takes after the citizenship of his Filipino father.

For his part, Joyas, like Macalintal, said the cases of Poe and her father should not be compared.

"The facts in the case of FPJ are not similar to that of Sen Poe. The biological parents of FPJ were not unknown, unlike in the situation of Sen Poe," Joyas said.

He suspected the Poe's new ad is aimed at shoring up support from the public, despite disqualification issues hounding her.

"The ads may have been conceptualized to bolster their arguments to let the people decide premised on the vox populi vox dei dictum," he said.

But the former IBP chief stressed that no matter how popular a candidate may be, like Poe, the Constitution and the rule of law should prevail. —NB, GMA News