Jardeleza: Comelec may have violated Grace Poe’s right to due process

Associate Justice Francis Jardeleza on Tuesday said that the Commission on Elections might have violated the right to due process of Senator Grace Poe when it canceled her certificate of candidacy.

Jardeleza expressed this to Comelec Commissioner Arthur Lim, who is representing the poll body, during the fourth round of oral arguments on Poe's petition against her disqualification by the Comelec.

"I think, and unless in your memorandum you can argue to me [the contrary], the Comelec may have crossed the line. You may have deprived Poe of her due process right to have the issue of fact, the triable question of fact of whether or not her parents are Filipino," said Jardeleza, who was former solicitor general.

Jardeleza, nonetheless, stressed that it was a tentative view until he has read all the memoranda of the parties concerned.

He said the Comelec failed to present factual evidence that she was not a natural-born Filipino citizen and that the poll body failed to address the probability that Poe may have been a foundling with Filipino, albeit still unknown, parents.

In response, Lim denied there was a violation of due process, and stressed that it was the Poe camp that had failed to present evidence to prove her natural citizenship, and instead has relied on "speculations."

He said that the Comelec discussed the evidence Poe presented to prove that she is a natural-born citizen but added that poll body found it insufficient.

"Rules of court require that the court or quasi-judicial body consider the evidence presented which may tend to establish probability or improbability of the fact in issue," said Lim.

"Certainly, it does not require that speculation be the basis of a decision," he added.

Lim said considering the probability that either or both Poe's parents were Filipino "would be engaging in speculation without factual support."

"That could not justify a decision that Sen. Poe is a natural-born citizen," he stressed.

The Comelec official cited the 1940 SC decision on Ang Tibay v. the Court of Industrial Relations (CIR), which "mandated that the tribunal must consider only evidence that has been presented and no other."

Available evidence

Had the Comelec ruled based on speculation, Lim said, the due process rights of the petitioners contesting Poe's qualification would have been violated instead.

"All these are speculation and could be struck down by the Supreme Court for violating the due process right of petitioners. They are also entitled to due process," said Lim, referring to petitioners Estrella Elamparo, Francisco Tatad, Amado Valdez, and Antonio Contreras.

While conceding that a possibility is speculative, Jardeleza still insisted that as a judge he would still have to come up with a decision based on the available evidence.

"To the extent that a possibility is a possibility, a possibility is speculative. But having heard all possibilities from both sides, I am still bound to decide and I cannot say, 'I will not decide because the evidence is not sufficient.' I have to make up my mind which side's evidence is not sufficient," said Jardeleza.

The magistrate, however, stressed that in the Poe cases, the Comelec "has enough [evidence] to decide."

Findings of fact

Earlier in his interpellation, Jardeleza said the Comelec might have failed make findings of fact in ruling that Poe was not a natural-born Filipino citizen.

The magistrate questioned whether the poll body made findings of fact instead of just ruling that Poe committed material misrepresentation based on the Comelec's interpretation that a foundling is not natural-born.

"To my mind, you did not make a factual determination based on evidence," Jardeleza said.

Jardeleza said Poe "tendered allegations of fact which to their mind will prove that she's a natural-born citizen."

"Where in the two en banc resolutions of the commence did it make a finding of fact based on other evidence presented by Poe?" Jardeleza said.

Jardeleza asked Lim if the Comelec merely made a position that Poe was not a natural-born Filipino based on the commission's reading of the Constitution as to who may be considered natural-born Filipinos. "Did you make findings of fact or did you not have to make any?" he added.

Lim, in response, said the poll body did make findings of fact and that those surrounding Poe being found at the Jaro Cathedral in 1968 were not sufficient to establish her being a natural-born citizen. "Despite totality of fact, facts independently and collectively [presented] do not satisfy the definition of what is natural-born," Lim said. —NB/JST, GMA News