(Part 1)
Although the Supreme Court has ruled with finality that Senator Grace Poe may run for president in the May 2016 elections, its pronouncement left several unanswered questions.
The Constitution provides that no person may be elected president of unless he is a natural-born citizen, and a resident of the country for at least 10 years immediately preceding such election; that the Commission on Elections has the power to decide all questions affecting elections (except those involving the right to vote); and that the decisions of the Comelec may be reversed by the Supreme Court if the same was attended with grave abuse of discretion.
According to the Supreme Court, the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, which is composed of all of the justices of the Court, shall be the sole judge of all contests relating to the election and qualifications of the president, after he is proclaimed president by Congress.
It is also provided in the Constitution that no decision shall be rendered by any court without expressing therein clearly and distinctly the facts and the law on which it is based, and that no motion for reconsideration may be denied without stating the legal basis therefor.
There other legal considerations as well. The decision of the Comelec is presumed to be regular, that is, valid and correct, until overturned by a doctrinal decision of the Supreme Court. A doctrinal decision is one that is supported by a majority of the justices who participated in the deliberations. If there is no doctrinal decision to overturn it, the decision of the Comelec must be upheld pursuant to that presumption of regularity.
The decision of the Supreme Court favoring Poe should be evaluated against the foregoing legal considerations.
After Poe filed her certificate of candidacy for president last year, four disqualification cases were filed against her before the Comelec on the grounds that Poe did not comply with the citizenship and residency requirements for the presidency. The Comelec eventually ruled against Poe—she is not a natural-born citizen, and that she failed to satisfy the residency requirement.
The Comelec acted well within its jurisdiction when it rendered judgment against Poe because, as stated earlier, the Constitution vests in the Comelec the power to decide all questions affecting elections, and the PET can act only after a candidate has been proclaimed president by Congress.
Poe elevated the case to the Supreme Court. According to a long line of jurisprudence, the only ground by which the Court may overturn the decision of the Comelec is a doctrinal finding that the Comelec committed a grave abuse of discretion when it ruled against Poe. If no such doctrinal finding is made, then the Comelec decision must be upheld pursuant to the presumption of regularity mentioned earlier.
Since all 15 justices of the Supreme Court participated in the deliberations of the disqualification cases against Poe, the concurrence of at least eight justices is necessary to constitute a doctrinal decision.
Only seven justices led by Justice Jose Portugal Perez opined that Poe is presumed to be a natural-born citizen, and that she met the residency requirement for a valid run for the presidency. Five disagreed, and three believed that the issue concerning her citizenship need not be passed upon.
A total of nine justices ultimately said that the Comelec acted with grave abuse of discretion when it disqualified Poe.
In fine, a plurality of the Supreme Court said that Poe is presumed to be a natural-born citizen based on the statistical inference of the Solicitor General that foundlings born in the Philippines between 1965 and 1975, which ostensibly includes Poe, were born to Filipino parents, and based likewise on the physical features of Poe.
Three justices were of the view that only the PET, and not the Supreme Court, may pass upon the qualifications of a president, and that it will be premature for either the Supreme Court or the Comelec to entertain the disqualification cases against Poe. In effect, the Court said that the Comelec cannot prematurely prohibit whoever it considers disqualified under the Constitution from running for the presidency, because that function exclusively belongs to the PET, but only after the candidate concerned is proclaimed the winner.
The Integrated Bar of the Philippines and the Philippine Bar Association criticized the supposed majority ruling, particularly its reliance on statistical inference and physical features.
Sadly, however, the motions for reconsideration were denied with finality last week. One party intends to file a second motion for reconsideration, citing a past occasions when the Supreme Court reversed itself several times on separate motions for reconsiderations.
Even so, there are still unanswered questions.
To repeat, nine justices declared that the Comelec committed a grave abuse of discretion when it disqualified Poe. According to them, Poe committed “honest mistakes” when she declared under oath, or made it appear in her certificate of candidacy for president, that she was born to Fernando Poe Jr. and his wife, even if she knew she is a foundling, and also when she stated in her certificate of candidacy for senator in 2013 that she was a resident of the Philippines only for six years and six months, which means that by May 2016, she will be six months short of the required residency of 10 years.
Good grief! At 48 years old, Poe is unable to tell the difference between being born to specific parents and being a foundling? At 48 years old, Poe is unable to count until 10? If incompetence were a ground for disqualification in the presidential derby, Poe will be in serious trouble.
This “honest mistake” precedent created by the Poe decision is fraught with troublesome consequences. Persons charged with perjury for making false statements under oath in official documents can simply claim that they made an “honest mistake” in accomplishing the document, and thus escape prosecution. Oaths and affidavits will be rendered meaningless. (To be continued on Saturday)
