On Rizalito David’s disqualification case against Sen. Grace Poe

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By Raïssa Robles

USE THIS - 2016 Elections UPDATES June 8-15Just a short note on this matter.

There are a number of people who would be interested in seeing Senator Grace Poe disqualified from the presidential race.

But there is one person who must be looking with intense fascination over this latest twist : former Senator Richard Gordon who placed 13th in the 2013 senatorial race that Poe had topped.

If it is ruled that she did not fulfill the two-year residency requirement to run for senator, then Gordon joins the Senate!

It may just be a happy coincidence for Gordon that Rizalito David, who recently filed the case to have her Senate victory annulled, belongs to the Ang Kapatiran Party. Kapatiran’s presidential candidate in 2010 was JC de los Reyes, nephew of former Senator Gordon. JC de los Reyes’ mom and Gordon are siblings.

I’m not saying at all that Gordon is behind this move to have Poe’s Senate victory rendered moot and academic. All I’m saying is that he is a natural interested party in this issue.

How Senator Poe handles this issue will show what stuff she is made of. For her camp to brand this plain and simple harassment is not doing her much good because the public is also eager to know the truth.

UPDATE: as of 11:16 AM, August 18, 2015 – I was just asked on Twitter why these disqualification cases were coming out only now, when Senator Poe was flying high. I replied, because no one knew much about Sen. Grace Poe’s status. There was presumption of regularity.

 

 

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  1. Latest on SET: Submission of Memorandums (October 6, 2015)

    Rizalito David’s camp bares discrepancies in Poe’s birth certificates

    By: Aries Joseph Hegina
    06:48 PM September 30th, 2015

    THE camp of Rizalito David, a defeated senatorial candidate in the 2013 polls who is seeking to unseat Senator Grace Poe, bared on Wednesday some discrepancies in her birth certificates which will supposedly bolster their claim that she is not a natural born Filipino.

    Showing the documents as part of the pieces of evidence they presented before the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET), David’s counsel Atty. Manuelito Luna said that Poe’s birth certificate issued on November 27, 1968 showed specifically that she is a foundling.

    But in Poe’s other birth certificate, which was issued on May 4, 2006, it showed that she is a Filipino and the first-born in the family.

    Other “glaring” errors spotted by Luna on Poe’s 2006 birth certificate include:

    – declaring Jesusa Sonora Poe (Susan Roces) and Ronald Allan Kelley Poe (Fernando Poe Jr) as the biological parents of Poe

    – stating that Ronald Allan Kelley Poe is/was alive in 2006 as FPJ died on December 14, 2004

    – stating that Grace Poe is Jesusa Sonora Poe’s first-born child, and

    – the senator was born to the spouses Jesusa Sonora Poe and Ronald Allan Kelley Poe

    He said that if the Poes are acting in good faith, they should have put “NA” on her citizenship and “adopted” on the “birth order” in the items on her birth certificate.

    The lawyer claims that Poe secured the 2006 birth certificate in preparation of her reacquisition of her Philippine citizenship under the Dual Citizen Act, which she subsequently filed in July 2006. Since Poe is a foundling, she should not have been given the opportunity to reacquire her Filipino citizenship, Luna explained.

    Adoption invalid

    David’s camp also alleged that her adoption papers are invalid as these were granted by the municipal court in San Juan, Rizal.

    Luna said that adoption proceedings, as provided by law, could only be heard and granted in a regional trial court.

    David’s camp: We sympathize for Poe but…

    Luna said that while they recognize the status of Poe as a foundling, she still violated the Constitution by violating the requirements to run for a Senate seat as she is allegedly not a natural born Filipino.

    “We sympathize with her for being a foundling but we have to uphold the Constitution. We have to uphold the rule of law,” Luna told reporters.

    “Since she violated the requirements, unless she will be able to disprove our claim that she is not a natural born Filipino, then she is disqualified and ousted from the Senate,” he added.

    The said birth certificates, adoption paper, as well as travel documents and passport records of Poe and her children form part of the 140-page Offer of Evidence they filed before the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET).

    The SET required both camps to submit their memorandum on the case on or before October 6, or 15 days after the September 21 oral arguments.

    Luna said that they will file their memorandum as early as October 1 or as late as October 5.

    Source: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/726794/rizalito-davids-camp-bares-discrepancies-in-poes-birth-certificates

  2. Residency challenge vs Poe abandoned

    Ina Reformina, ABS-CBN News
    Posted at 09/11/2015 3:25 PM

    SET to focus on whether senator is a natural-born Filipino

    MANILA – For the first time since Rizalito David filed a quo warranto petition against the citizenship of Senator Grace Poe in August, both parties found themselves in the same room on Friday: the Supreme Court (SC) En Banc Conference Room for the preliminary conference scheduled by the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET).

    The conference lasted for more or less 30 minutes, with both parties telling members of the media later that the main or threshold issue of the entire proceedings is whether or not Poe is a natural-born Filipino.

    Poe’s chief counsel, Atty. Alex Poblador, said the challenge to the lawmaker’s residency has been “abandoned.”

    Speaking to ABS-CBN News, David said the decision to set citizenship as the main issue was suggested by the SET through its chairman, Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio.

    Source: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/09/11/15/residency-challenge-vs-poe-abandoned