EXPLAINER: Did the SC really say Grace Poe is qualified?

11/09/2017, 6*53 AM

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EXPLAINER: Did the SC really say Grace Poe is qualiAed?

The dispositive portion causes confusion and gives a false impression that this 'deny due
course' decision prevents parties from pursuing a quo warranto case in the future, when
clearly it does not

Emil With a vote of 9-6, the Supreme Court

Maraon III (SC) annulled the assailed resolutions of
Published 8:30
AM, March 16,
the Commission on Elections (Comelec)
2016 cancelling Grace Poes certiPcate of
Updated 11:33
PM, March 16, candidacy (COC). The High Court said
2016 those resolutions are deadly diseased
with grave abuse of discretion from root
to fruits.

Unusually strong words for a decision, these probably reVect the level of
tension among the justices in deciding this monumental case, as can be
sensed from their individual opinions.

Beyond Padre Faura, such tension spilled everywhere. Everyones Facebook

timeline suddenly turned into an instant war zone of pro- and anti-Grace Poe
posts. Those who took the cake, however, were the professor from a law
school in Alabang, who tearfully expressed his disappointment in a video,
and those viral posts by a De La Salle University professor who could rival
Dan Brown with his fascinating conspiracy theories about how the case was
decided.

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EXPLAINER: Did the SC really say Grace Poe is qualified? 11/09/2017, 6*53 AM

But is there anything special or novel about the decision? The gist of the
ruling shows that, contrary to the views of the decisions critics, no
Constitution was wrecked nor any wheel reinvented to accommodate Grace
Poe. It simply applied existing jurisprudence to her case, and she happened
to end up on the correct side of the law. I cited these exact cases in my
previous articles, where we pointed out the errors committed by the
Comelec.

MOVING FORWARD. On March 14, 2016, nearly a week after the Supreme Court allows
her to run for president, Grace Poe campaigns at the University of the Philippines-Visayas
in Iloilo, the province where she was abandoned as an infant in front of a Catholic
cathedral.

Let us review:

On citizenship. The most contentious among the issues raised was Poes
citizenship. While the main ruling cited a very high statistical probability at
99.83% that a child born in the Philippines between 1965 to 1975
(including Grace Poe who was born in 1968) is natural-born Filipino, that
argument essentially rests on the mere reiteration of the doctrine on the
presumption of citizenship.

Reacquisition of citizenship. On the issue of her reacquisition of her

citizenship through Republic Act Number 9225 and its effect on her natural-
born status, the SC reiterated the ruling in Bengson III v. HRET (GR Number
142840, May 7, 2001) that repatriation results in the recovery of the original

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EXPLAINER: Did the SC really say Grace Poe is qualified? 11/09/2017, 6*53 AM

nationality. This means that a repatriating natural-born citizen as Poe was

later adjudged reacquires her former status as a natural-born. She simply
reacquired what she lost.

Residency. On the issue of residency, the majority of the justices cited the
case of Mitra v. Comelec (GR Number 191938, July 2, 2010), which
previously acknowledged that the reacquisition of a residence could be
incrementalor could involve a process lasting for an extended period. In
Poes case, the counting of her residence was ruled to have commenced
when she prepared to move to the Philippines on May 24, 2005.

Mistake in COC. As regards the mistake that she committed in her COC in
2010, the Supreme Court expectedly applied the ruling in Imelda Marcos v.
Comelec (GR Number 11997, September 18, 1995). This ruling says that it
is the fact of residence, not a statement in a certiPcate of candidacy, which
ought to be decisive in determining whether or not an individual has satisPed
the Constitution's residency qualiPcation requirement.

So what can be considered unusual in the SC ruling? Its dispositive portion

is not the typical dispositive portion in decisions to deny due course. It reads
as follows:

Petitioner MARY GRACE NATIVIDAD SONORA POE-LLAMANZARES is

DECLARED QUALIFIED to be a candidate for President in the National
and Local Elections of 9 May 2016.

With the way the decision was worded, it would seem that the Supreme
Court already declared Grace Poe as qualiPed to be a candidate for
president. In the conundrum of arguments, it seems the fact was forgotten
that Poes cases were "deny due course" cases Pled under Section 78 of the
Omnibus Election Code. They were not yet quo warranto proceedings that
inquire into her eligibility or qualiPcation.

Given this, the Supreme Court could, at most, determine whether Poe
committed material misrepresentation over a qualiPcation, but it could not
inquire into the possession or non-possession of a qualiPcation per se, at
least at this stage.

While it can be conceded that the Supreme Court may pass upon the issue

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EXPLAINER: Did the SC really say Grace Poe is qualified? 11/09/2017, 6*53 AM

of qualiPcation in resolving the issue of misrepresentation, such

determination is only provisional. It is exclusively for the purpose of
determining the deliberateness and materiality of the misrepresentation.

In fact, the Pndings on qualiPcations in a deny due course proceeding, while

they carry some weight, are not conclusive in the strict sense of the law.
They do not even constitute res judicata or a bar to a later action for quo
warranto before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal.

While it can be argued that the PET, according to the High Court itself, is not
separate from and essentially is the Supreme Court, it is still, by
constitutional Pction, independent from the latter. This means that while
the possibility of reversing the Pndings on the qualiPcations is slim, if not
impossible, in theory the PET can still decide differently from the Supreme
Court.

Why is the SC not supposed to declare Poe as qualiPed? It was the main
thrust of the decision on Poe's case: there, the court itself highlighted the
fact that there is an absence of an authorized proceeding for determining
before election the qualiPcations of candidate.

The decision reasoned that there is actually no law which allows the
declaration of eligibility or ineligibility of candidates before elections. So if
this is not allowed, then it begs the question: why did the Supreme Court
already declare Grace Poe as qualiPed?

This is not a plain critique on the ponentes choice of words; it has a

signiPcant legal bearing on Poe and on the future quo warranto cases that
might be Pled against her. As presently worded, the dispositive portion
raises confusion and gives a false impression that this deny due course
decision would constitute res judicata, preventing the same parties from
pursuing a quo warranto case in the future, when clearly it does not.
Rappler.com

Emil Maraon III is an election lawyer who served as chief of staff of recently
retired Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. He is currently studying Human
Rights, ConVict and Justice at SOAS, University of London, as a Chevening
scholar.

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EXPLAINER: Did the SC really say Grace Poe is qualified? 11/09/2017, 6*53 AM

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