NATURAL-BORN FILIPINO.

The Supreme Court rules in favor of Senator Grace Poe in the citizenship
case seeking her disqualification as senator. File photo from the Office of Senator Grace Poe

MANILA, Philippines – The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday, September 20, ruled that
Grace Poe is qualified to hold office as a Philippine senator since she is a natural-born
Filipino.

The Court voted 9-3 to dismiss the petition for certiorari filed by Rizalito David, who
wanted the SC to review the final decision of the Senate Electoral Tribunal
(SET) upholding Poe's natural-born status.

"Public respondent Senate Electoral Tribunal did not act without or in excess of its
jurisdiction, or with grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction
in rendering its assailed November 17, 2015 Decision and December 3, 2015
Resolution," the SC said in its decision.

"Private respondent Mary Grace Poe-Llamanzares is a natural-born Filipino citizen

qualified to hold office as Senator of the Republic."

The High Court had earlier ruled that Poe is a natural-born Filipino, a decision
that allowed the senator to run for the presidency in the 2016 elections.

Poe was the first presidential candidate to concede to then Davao City mayor and now
President Rodrigo Duterte.

In a statement, Poe said she welcomed the SC decision that dismissed what she called
a "baseless" petition.

"I laud the Court in affirming my status, and in effect all other foundlings in the country,
as natural-born Filipinos, with full rights to serve the nation. I sincerely hope that this will
put the issue to rest, and that all foundlings be given due recognition each of us
deserves," she said.

On foundlings' citizenship

In a press briefer on Tuesday, the SC said it sustained the SET majority's decision that
Poe is natural-born by "upholding the use of circumstantial evidence and presumptions."

One such presumption is that all foundlings found in the Philippines are born to at least
either a Filipino father or a Filipino mother, thus making them natural-born unless it can
be proved otherwise.
"Concluding that foundlings are not natural-born Filipino citizens is tantamount to telling
our foundling citizens that they can never be of service to the country in the highest
possible capacities. It is also tantamount to excluding them from certain means, such as
professions and state scholarships, which will enable the actualization of their
aspirations," the Court said.

Moreover, the SC noted that declaring foundlings as not natural-born will create "an
inferior class of citizens who are made to suffer that inferiority through no fault of their
own."

"If that is not discrimination, we do not know what is," it added.

The Court also noted that David's insistence of Poe's "supposed burden to prove the
circumstance of her birth" only places upon her "an impossible condition."

"It borders on the absurd to require proof from private respondent [Poe] when there is
no dispute that the crux of the controversy – the identity of her biological parents – is
simply not known."

There are other "uncontroverted circumstances," the SC said, that constitute

substantive evidence of Poe's parentage:

 Petitioner was found in front of a church in Jaro, Iloilo

 She was only an infant when she was found, practically a newborn
 She was found sometime in September 1968
 Immediately after she was found, private respondent was registered as a
foundling
 There was no international airport in Jaro, Iloilo
 Private respondent's physical features are consistent with those of typical
Filipinos

The SC also ruled on Tuesday that Poe "re-acquired natural-born Filipino citizenship
when, following her naturalization as a citizen of the United States of America, she
complied with the requisites of Republic Act No. 9225" or the Citizenship Retention and
Re-acquisition Act of 2003. - Republic Act No. 9225 otherwise known as
the Citizenship Retention and Reacquisition Act of 2003 declares that natural-
born citizens of the Philippines who become citizens of another country shall be
deemed not to have lost their Philippine citizenship.
Section 3 of the law states that "[a]ny provision of law to the contrary notwithstanding,
natural-born citizenship by reason of their naturalization as citizens of a foreign country
are hereby deemed to have re-acquired Philippine citizenship upon taking the following
oath of allegiance to the Republic:"
Following the SC ruling, Justice Estela Perlas-Bernabe filed a separate dissenting
opinion and argued that the burden of showing blood relationship to a parent fell on Poe
as soon as David had proved that she was a foundling.

She insisted that Poe could not be considered a natural-born citizen since she had not
presented "competent and sufficient" evidence of any blood relation to a Filipino parent.