Poe given 5 days to answer appeal on disqualification case

MANILA, Philippines – The Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) gave the camp of Sen. Grace Poe five days to comment on the motion for reconsideration (MR) filed by losing senatorial candidate Rizalito David regarding the disqualification case he filed against Poe.

Lawyer Irene Guevarra, SET spokesperson, said Poe has until Dec. 1 to submit her comment on David’s MR. Should Poe fail to submit her comment, the MR will be submitted for resolution.

Poe’s lawyer George Garcia said they received the order from the SET yesterday afternoon and they would surely file a comment.

Poe was supposed to submit her comment on Nov. 30, but since it is a holiday, the SET moved the submission date to Dec. 1.

Garcia said he remains confident that the tribunal will junk David’s MR because David has just repeated his allegations and arguments on Poe’s citizenship, and did not present new evidence.

But Garcia said Poe is ready to accept whatever is the SET’s final decision.

David filed the MR on Monday, asking the SET to reverse its ruling that Poe, despite being a foundling, is a natural-born Filipino and qualified to continue serving as senator.

Under the Constitution, only natural-born Filipinos may run for Congress, vice president and president.

David said SET gravely abused its discretion when it decided on his disqualification case against Poe.

David told The STAR yesterday that there is a possibility that Sen. Pia Cayetano would eventually change her position as she did not submit her concurring opinion on Poe’s disqualification case and because her brother, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, has a dissenting opinion on Poe’s case.

Alan Cayetano is the running mate of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, one of the opponents of Poe and David in the presidential race.

“I am hoping and praying that Pia will decide along the rule of law and the Constitution and not politics,” David said.

Poe accused of misrepresentation

Meanwhile, De La Salle University professor Antonio Contreras accused Poe of committing a “pattern of misrepresentation” on her citizenship.

Contreras is seeking the cancellation of Poe’s certificate of candidacy (COC) for president on the ground that she did not meet the 10-year residency requirement.

In the oral arguments of his petition to disqualify Poe from the 2016 presidential race before the Second Division of the Commission on Elections (Comelec), Contreras said that Poe lied “not once but twice” about her citizenship before she filed her COC for senator in the 2013 elections.

“Senator Poe also has a record of trying to misrepresent herself. On June 1, 2006, she and her husband bought a lot, and in the TCT (Transfer Certificate of Title) it was mentioned that she was a Filipino,” Contreras said, referring to a property in Quezon City.

He noted that on Feb. 9, 2006, Poe also bought a condominium in San Juan and again indicated in the Condominium Certificate of Title that she is a Filipino.

“This (COC for senator) shows that she could have committed (misrepresentation) because we know for a fact that she became a Filipino only in July 2006,” he said, referring to the time Poe reacquired her Filipino citizenship, thus becoming a dual citizen of the Philippines and United States.

In an ambush interview, Contreras maintained that Poe has a record of “trying to give false information” and that could give the public an idea that she probably did the same on her COC.

“I always say that if you place wrong information in a document, that is misinformation. That’s misleading... Regardless if with malicious intent or not, this is deliberate,” he added.

Yesterday, the Second Division of the Comelec also heard the two other disqualification cases lodged by former University of the East College of Law dean Amado Valdez and former senator Francisco Tatad.

Garcia said in an interview that Poe’s action was a simple case of “honest mistake.”

“She erred in her computation of her period of residency. It was an honest mistake. She is not a lawyer and she indicated that she is a Filipino because that was her belief. So that means this is a question of law,” he added.

Garcia gave assurance that there was no “malicious and deliberate intent” on Poe’s part to commit a lie.

“That was a mistake on the interpretation of what is really her status. When she came back to the Philippines, she believed she was already a Filipino. It happens sometimes but it does not mean that you committed a lie and that is sufficient for you to be charged or disqualified,” he maintained. – With Sheila Crisostomo