Immigration presumed Grace Poe was natural-born Filipino —lawyer

The Bureau of Immigration simply presumed that Grace Poe was a natural-born Filipino in a document presented by her camp to bolster her citizenship cases, her counsel said in Tuesday's oral arguments at the Supreme Court.

Poe's lawyer Alexander Poblador said so during the interpellation from Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo-De Castro, who questioned the basis for the BI to come to such a conclusion.

Poblador said that Poe merely presented a copy of her old Philippine passport to the agency.

"The rules of the BI establish a presumption that a former Filipino citizen who presents an old Philippine passport is presumed to be natural-born. That is in the rules, so even those rules should be afforded a presumption of regularity," he said.

He added that "the mere fact that she was adopted already reinforces the presumption entertained by the BI that she was a Filipino, because how could she be adopted if she were not a Filipino?"

De Castro argued that Poe had represented before the BI that she was born to natural-born parents, which was the basis for the agency's presumption.

Poe is seeking the reversal of Commission on Elections (Comelec) decisions canceling her certificate of candidacy for the May presidential elections. Part of the argument is over her status as a natural-born Filipino citizen because she was a foundling.

De Castro had earlier expressed her belief that Poe was not a natural-born citizen as a member of the Senate Electoral Tribunal, which dealt with a different disqualification case against the senator. —JST, GMA News