Burden now on Poe to prove own records

Petitioners for Fernando Poe Jr.’s removal as presidential candidate thought they had the case all sewn up. A Senate inquiry earlier had shafted their evidence that he was born out of wedlock since his father was at the time married to another woman. Their star witness. the National Archives chief, ended up sued for altering official records. But the petitioners shifted tack, resting their case on Poe’s own evidence. The birth certificate he had submitted to the Comelec as proof of Filipino natural birth, dated 20 Aug. 1939, states his father to be Filipino, but his mother Bessie Kelly to be American. The marriage contract of his parents, dated 16 Sept. 1940, states the same. The dates were enough proof of Poe’s illegitimate birth a year before the nuptial. Citing a dozen SC rulings at that time, the petitioners argued that Poe’s mother was the only legally recognized parent, so he automatically took on her nationality. As an alien at birth, Poe is thus barred by the Constitution from running for national office.

But a new twist unravelled Thursday at the Supreme Court. Poe’s own lawyer denied their very records that the petitioners were pouncing on. Atty. Estelito Mendoza said the entries on Kelly’s citizenship must be wrong. For, the marriage contract clearly states that her mother Marta Gatbunton was Filipina, which could make Kelly so too.

The SC tries only questions of law, not of fact. Court watchers surmised that Mendoza was maneuvering to have the case remanded to the Comelec. After all, he had scored twice before in the election body. Its first division, while ruing lack of jurisdiction, nonetheless had said that Poe was of Filipino birth by virtue of his father’s Filipinohood. It then ruled en banc there was no proof that Poe misrepresented his citizenship papers. Too, Mendoza has been arguing that the SC can take on the case only if the citizenship of a president is questioned. His point is to wait till after the elections to determine if the winner was constitutionally qualified or not.

While the lawyer was splitting hairs, Poe made his own gambit. He startled reporters by saying he now doubts the accuracy of his own birth certificate. The Presidential Anti-Graft Commission, looking into the archives chief’s mischiefs, had ordered Poe to submit his citizenship records to bolster the rap. But Poe’s campaign manager, Sen. Tito Sotto, said he was worried about complying because the inaccuracies might be blamed on him. The PAGC, they intoned, should subpoena instead the records of the Manila City birth registry, which had issued the certificate in the first place.

Poe did not detail the untruths. But his confession completes the convoluted circle of the case. The petitioners had charged at the onset that Poe had presented to the Comelec a fake birth record. They claimed that the entries were made on an electric typewriter, which was not yet in use in the Philippines in the ’30s. Too, that the signatures of the city registrar and the attending physician were made from a ballpen and a technical pen, respectively, that came into use only in the ’50s and ’70s. These, they said, were in stark contrast to the birth certificates of Poe’s elder and younger siblings, all of which were purely handwritten using vintage ’30s and ’40s fountain pens. Lawyers had in fact filed criminal cases in Manila and Pasay cities against Poe for falsifying the public records that he submitted to the Comelec and the foreign office.

Sotto said that Poe secured the birth certificate from Manila last year to obtain a new passport to travel abroad. The actor, he explained, had lost the passport issued to him 40 years ago, when he travelled to Europe for a movie filming with his bosom pal Joseph Estrada. Poe then submitted the same certificate to the Comelec to file for candidacy in December.

Yet this explanation opens new questions – putting on Poe the burden of proving the accuracy of his birth record and the uprightness of his acts. To begin with, Poe’s application for a replacement passport did not have the required supporting documents and affidavit of loss. This was pointed out in the Manila and Pasay criminal cases. Poe must have cut corners, for what reason has yet to be known.

More than that, the question arises if Poe never travelled abroad from 1963 to 2003. Reports state that he flew to New York with Estrada in 1998 for the funeral of the latter’s elder brother. One of the seven petitioners now snickers that "Poe must have used his American passport for that trip."

The SC has yet to decide if it will take on the case. The four amici curiae it invited last Thursday had all opined that illegitimacy should not be taken against the child, but added nonetheless that the SC must rule on Poe. If it bites Mendoza’s bait, the SC can remand the case to the Comelec, or order a lower court to determine the facts with speed.

Meanwhile, agitators of street violence if Poe is disqualified have subsided. It is unlikely, though, that they have learned their lesson from the police dispersal of their unlawful pickets within 200 meters of the SC building. One leader bragged that they will take to the streets anew at the slightest sign of the SC favoring disqualification. If at all, they have proven through their small numbers that, despite Poe’s surge in surveys, he does not command the following of majority of voters. And that survey lead is fast eroding.

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Tourists who drove up to Baguio last weekend looked forward to a nature trip from the Panagbenga flower festival. Enroute, however, they saw how national candidates nailed campaign posters on all trees lining the MacArthus Highway, and defaced the boulders along Kennon Road.

Foremost violators of Comelec rules on posters were presidential candidates Gloria Arroyo, Fernando Poe Jr. and Panfilo Lacson. Also, vice presidential candidate Noli de Castro, and senatorial candidates Bong Revilla, Mar Roxas, Lito Lapid, Boots Anson Roa, Ernesto Herrera, Ernesto Maceda, and a certain Chavez.

The Comelec holds candidates accountable for breaches. If they claim it’s the fault of their overeager campaigners, it only shows they’re not in charge – and not worthy of votes perhaps.

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