Grace Poe finds ally in ex-Chief Justice Panganiban in DQ cases

A retired Supreme Court chief justice has rushed to the side of Sen. Grace Poe, saying she should not be disqualified from the presidential race if her supposed "misrepresentation" was unintentional.

Retired Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban said he saw no reason why the Supreme Court should affirm the two rulings of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) cancelling Poe's certificate of candidacy (COC) for president over alleged misrepresentation in her citizenship and residency status.

According to Panganiban, even if the entries on her citizenship and residency were false, Poe’s COC cannot be canceled in the absence of proof that those misrepresentations are "intentional, deliberate and willful."

Under the Constitution, presidential aspirants must be a natural-born Filipino who have resided in the Philippines for at least 10 years.

"Assuming arguendo that her statements were false, still her COC cannot be cancelled if she made them in good faith with no intention to deceive the electorate,” said Panganiban in his newspaper column, ahead of the special full court session of the 15-member high court to tackle Poe’s consolidated petition on Tuesday.

It was not immediately clear if the high tribunal would already be voting on Poe's plea on Tuesday or would move it to a later date.

Disrespectful

Reacting to Panganiban's column, lawyer Manuelito Luna, representing former Sen. Francisco Tatad, who was among the private complainants that had requested Poe's disqualification, accused the former chief justice of trying "to swing the opinion of the Honorable Supreme Court in the Poe cases."

Tatad and Luna had earlier filed formal manifestations with the Supreme Court seeking to have Panganiban cited in indirect contempt for writing columns allegedly in favor of Poe.

"Prudence dictates that he refrains from writing features tending to undermine the administration of justice, not to mention disrespectful of the High Court. Is he trying to imply that he knows better than the justices of the High Court?" said Luna.

FPJ

Panganiban said the senator’s case is similar to that of her father, the late actor Fernando Poe Jr., whose citizenship was also questioned when he ran for president in 2004.

Then an associate justice, Panganiban was among the eight justices belonging to the the majority that ruled in favor of FPJ, paving the way for his presidential bid in the 2004 elections that was marred by controversy and reports of widespread cheating.

"To determine good faith and intention, what degree of proof is required? Does it need to be conclusive? A good guide to answer this crucial question is Tecson vs Comelec (Mar. 3, 2003), the celebrated case on the Comelec’s authority to cancel the COC of a presidential candidate,” Panganiban said, referring to FPJ’s case.

In the case of FPJ, it was argued that he was not a natural-born Filipino because both his parents were foreigners: his mother, Bessie Kelly, an American, and his father, Allan Poe, a Spaniard being the son of Lorenzo Pou, a Spanish subject. It was further claimed that FPJ was an illegitimate child who followed the citizenship of his American mother.

The SC, in its decision penned by then Associate Justice Jose Vitug, however, held that FPJ’s father could be considered a Filipino citizen because his grandfather, Pou, would have benefited from the "en mass Filipinization" that the Philippine Bill had effected in 1902.

The high court also declared that the 1935 Constitution confers citizenship on all persons whose fathers are Filipino citizens regardless of whether such children are legitimate or not.

"Give people free choice"

Panganiban said that since the totality of the evidence failed to establish conclusively that FPJ was a natural-born citizen, the high court said he "cannot be held guilty of having made a material misrepresentation in his [COC]… which, as so ruled in Romualdez-Marcos vs. Comelec, must not only be material, but also deliberate and willful.”

"The majority said in essence that election laws should be construed liberally and that doubts in interpreting them should be resolved in favor of giving the people free choice," Panganiban added.

Quoting then SC Associate Justice and eventual Chief Justice Reynato Puno, Panganiban said: "Given the indecisiveness of the votes of the members of this Court, the better policy approach is to let the people decide who will be the next President. For on political questions, this Court may err but the sovereign people will not. To be sure, the Constitution did not grant to the unelected members of this Court the right to elect in behalf of the people."

Panganiban also cited the separate concurring opinion of then Associate Justice Angelina Sandoval-Gutierrez, which says: "The present bid to disqualify [FPJ] from the presidential race is a clear attempt to eliminate him as one of the choices. This Court should resist such attempt… We should not only welcome electoral competition, we should cherish it. Disqualifying a candidate, particularly the popular one, on the basis of doubtful claims does not result to a genuine, free and fair election. It results to violence." —KBK, GMA News