SC affirms TRO on Poe DQ cases

MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court (SC) yesterday affirmed the orders temporarily stopping the disqualification of Sen. Grace Poe from the presidential election this May, which were issued by Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno during its holiday recess.

Voting 12-3 in their first session for this year, the SC justices decided to uphold the two temporary restraining orders (TROs) issued by Sereno last Dec. 28, enjoining the Comelec from implementing the disqualification ruling of its two divisions against Poe.

The TROs, effective immediately and until rescinded, specifically stopped the poll body from implementing the rulings of its two divisions canceling Poe’s certificate of candidacy (COC) for the presidency due to misrepresentation on her citizenship and residency eligibilities.

The orders effectively allowed Poe to keep her slot in the ballots to be printed by the Comelec in February.

The Chief Justice has the power to issue TROs on urgent cases while the high court is in recess, but rules require that the orders be confirmed by the full court when session resumes.

SC spokesman Theodore Te told a press conference that the magistrates also confirmed the setting of oral arguments on Poe’s petitions on Jan. 19 at 2 p.m.

The Comelec and four petitioners in the disqualification cases against Poe - former senator Francisco Tatad, De La Salle University professor Antonio Contreras, former University of the East law dean Amado Valdez and former Government Service Insurance System counsel Estrella Elamparo - have filed their respective answers before the SC and sought the dismissal of Poe’s petitions.

The high court, however, rejected the plea of the senator for consolidation of her petitions against the Comelec rulings to that of Rizalito David, which assailed an earlier decision of the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) that declared her a natural-born Filipino.

The SC decided to hear David’s petition separately in oral arguments on another date to be announced by the court.    

Poe welcomed the decision of the SC to uphold the issuance of a TRO against the Comelec’s disqualification order against her.

Poe was in a provincial sortie with her running mate Sen. Francis Escudero when she received the good news.

The SC decision bolstered her belief that she is a qualified candidate for the May poll, Poe said.

Escudero also thanked the SC magistrates for affirming the TRO. “This confirms that Sen. Grace Poe remains a candidate for president and whose name stays on the official ballot, notwithstanding the orchestrated efforts to disqualify her,” he said.

Escudero remains hopeful that the SC will also uphold the laws and long established jurisprudence when it decides on the other petitions in connection with Poe’s candidacy.

Justices won’t inhibit

The three SC justices who voted to unseat Poe in the SET over a citizenship issue have decided not to inhibit from SC cases involving her disqualification from the presidential polls.

Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio and Associate Justices Teresita Leonardo-de Castro and Arturo Brion rejected the plea of Poe for the justices to inhibit in her petitions assailing the Comelec rulings disqualifying her from the May 2016 polls.

Te confirmed this in a press conference yesterday, saying Carpio, De Castro and Brion participated in the high court’s deliberations on Poe’s cases on her Comelec disqualification in their first full court session for the year.

He said they have voted against the issuance of the TROs by Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno stopping the implementation of the Comelec rulings.

The three justices are then expected to participate in oral arguments on Jan. 19.

The three justices inhibited earlier in the separate petition filed by David questioning the SET decision, where they participated and voted with the minority.

The assailed Comelec rulings cancelled Poe’s certificate of candidacy due to misrepresentation on her citizenship and residency in the country.

The same issue of whether or not she is a natural-born citizen eligible for election to top national posts was resolved by the SET last November in deliberations where the three justices participated.

The tribunal, however, did not touch on the residency issue and only ruled on the citizenship issue.

In the SET, the three justices voted in the minority opinion that Poe is not a natural-born citizen unless she proves that either of her biological parents was a Filipino. – Edu Punay, Christina Mendez