ATTENTION, GRACE POE

SC ousts American mayor of

Lanao town
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By: Tarra Quismundo

@inquirerdotnet

Philippine Daily Inquirer

05:19 AM September 19th, 2015
Can someone who once swore allegiance to a foreign country and continued to use a foreign passport
after supposedly reacquiring Philippine citizenship legitimately hold public office?
In a decision that has now become part of the body of jurisprudence on the question of the
qualification of candidates who once held foreign citizenship, the Supreme Court upheld the
disqualification of a Lanao del Norte mayor who continued to use his United States passport even after
reacquiring his status as a Filipino citizen in July 2008 and renouncing his American citizenship in April
2009.
Only natural-born Filipinos who owe total and undivided allegiance to the Republic of the Philippines
could run for and hold elective public office, read the decision released just this week.
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Through an 8 to 4 vote, the high court upheld last Aug. 18 the Commission on Elections 2013
resolution disqualifying Kauswagan Mayor Rommel Arnado, who won reelection by a landslide in 2013
despite questions about his citizenship dating back to his first electoral bid in 2010.
The high court ruled that Arnados continued use of his United States passport in 2010 in effect
invalidated his renunciation of his US citizenship in 2009.
The ruling disqualified him in his first electoral bid in 2010, being a candidate without an undivided
allegiance to the Republic of the Philippines.

Poe case
The ruling comes in the midst of a disqualification case involving a question of citizenship being heard
by the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) against Sen. Grace Poe, who has just announced her candidacy
for President. Poe became a US citizen in 2001, 10 years after she married a US citizen, Neil
Llamanzares.

A foundling born in 1968 and adopted in 1974 by the late actor Fernando Poe Jr. and his wife, actress
Susan Roces, Poe claimed to have reacquired Philippine citizenship in 2006. She claimed to have been
a dual citizen until 2010, when she said she renounced her US citizenship upon her appointment as
chair of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board.
Her accuser, Rizalito David, a defeated senatorial candidate in 2013, is claiming that Poe continued to
use her US passport despite her reacquisition of Philippine citizenship.
Oral arguments on the case are set for Monday at the SET. Among the issues to be taken during the
proceedings is whether Poes use of her US passport after supposedly renewing allegiance to the
Philippines on July 7, 2006, affected her acquisition of natural-born Filipino citizenship.
Second ruling
The Aug. 18 decision was the second Supreme Court ruling deeming Arnado unqualified for an elective
position, the first one having been issued on April 2013, toward the end of his first term in office.
The high court had in its first ruling declared Casan Macode Maquiling, the petitioner in the first case,
the rightful winner of the 2010 mayoral race in Kauswagan.
In the second ruling, which resolved Arnados petition to stop his disqualification, the high court said
Arnados continued use of his US passport in 2010 had, in effect, voided his renunciation of his US
citizenship on April 3, 2009.
The court also upheld the Comelecs declaration of Florante Capitan, the one who petitioned against
Arnados candidacy, as the victor in the Kauswagan mayoral election in 2013.
It also lifted the status quo ante order it issued in March 2014, which allowed Arnado to continue to
assume and exercise the functions of mayor while the high court deliberated on the merits of his
petition seeking reversal of the Comelec-ordered disqualification.
Comelec did not err
The Comelec en banc did not err, nor did it commit grave abuse of discretion, in upholding the
resolution of the Comelec Second Division disqualifiying Arnado from running for public office, said
the decision penned by Associate Justice Mariano del Castillo.
It is worth noting that the reason for Arnados disqualification to run for public office during the 2010
electionsbeing a candidate without undivided allegiance to the Philippinesstill subsisted when he
filed his COC [certificate of candidacy] for the 2013 election on Oct. 1, 2012, the court ruled.
In throwing out Arnados petition to stop his ouster, the Supreme Court cited its April 2013 rulinga
decision it upheld with finality in July of the same yearwhere it disqualified the mayor from public
office for precisely the same problems surrounding his citizenship.
The court said the poll body merely adhered to its ruling in the first case on Arnados citizenship,
lest it would be committing grave abuse of discretion had it departed therefrom.
The circumstances surrounding the qualification of Arnado to run for public office during the May 10,
2010, and May 13, 2013, elections, to reiterate for emphasis, are the same, said the ruling.
Renunciation invalidated

Arnados use of his US passport in 2009 invalidated his oath of renunciation, resulting in his
disqualification to run for mayor of Kauswagan in the 2010 elections. Since then, and up to the time he
filed his COC for the 2013 elections, Arnado had not cured the defect in his qualification, the high
court said.
It cited the doctrine of stare decisis et non quieta movere, or to adhere to precedents and not to
unsettle things which are established, which enjoins adherence to judicial precedents and bars
relitigation of the same.
The court ruled that Arnado failed fo fulfill qualification requirements under Republic Act No. 9225, the
law on rules governing dual citizenship.
Dual citizenship rule
The dual citizenship law requires that those who retained their Philippine citizenship when they
obtained foreign citizenship may seek public office only if they make a personal sworn renunciation of
any and all foreign citizenships before any public officer authoritized to administer an oath prior to or
at the time of filing their certificate of candidacy.
The high court upheld the Comelecs ruling that Arnado had failed to comply with this requisite as his
affidavit of renunciation (of his US citizenship) in 2009 was deemed withdrawn when he used his US
passport after executing [the] affidavit.
The court said Arnado failed to comply with this requirement when he filed his COC for the 2013
elections on Oct. 1, 2012.

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