Complainant to take Poe case all the way to SC

MANILA, Philippines - The complainant in the citizenship case involving Sen. Grace Poe yesterday vowed to take his fight against the potential presidential aspirant all the way to the Supreme Court (SC).

“If I lose in the SET (Senate Electoral Tribunal) or the Comelec (Commission on Elections), I will elevate my case to the SC,” defeated senatorial candidate Rizalito David told reporters.

He said the citizenship and lack of residency issues hounding Poe have to be resolved with finality, which only the highest court could do.

“I have nothing to gain from this. As a concerned citizen, I took it upon myself to raise these issues. Why me? Because so far, no one has dared question her citizenship before the proper forum,” he said.

Asked why he is doing it only now, David claimed that he had indirectly brought out Poe’s citizenship during the 2013 senatorial campaign.

“We were together in one forum in Cebu and when it was my turn to speak, I urged voters to examine the parentage of every candidate. I did not directly refer to her, but parentage includes citizenship,” he said.

For the second time in a row, David lost in that election, which Poe topped.

In the cases he filed with the SET and the Comelec, David argued that Poe could not consider herself to be a natural-born Filipino because it could not be established if her parents were natural born Filipinos.

The senator is an adopted daughter of the late actor Fernando Poe Jr. and actress Susan Roces.

Senator Poe has asserted that she is a natural-born Filipino, which is a requirement for the presidency prescribed by the Constitution. She remains coy about her 2016 plans, though her supporters claim that she has set her mind on the highest office.

A presidential candidate is also required by the Constitution to have stayed in the country for at least 10 years before the day of the election in which he or she is running.

On Thursday, party-list Reps. Lito Atienza of Buhay and Antonio Tinio of the Alliance of Concerned Citizens said Poe should welcome the cases filed by David.

These would give her the opportunity to clarify the citizenship and lack of residency issues confronting her, they said.

Former Negros Oriental congressman Jacinto Paras said Poe, formerly an American citizen, applied to regain her Filipino citizenship on July 18, 2006.

If that is the reckoning point for the 10-year residency rule, the senator is short by three months on May 9, 2016, the date of the next elections, he said.

It was Navotas Rep. Tobias Tiangco, president of Vice President Jejomar Binay’s opposition United Nationalist Alliance, who first raised the issue of Poe’s residency.

By Tiangco’s count, she would be short by six months.

Poe claims she would be compliant with the 10-year rule by May 9 next year.