Embattled presidential candidate Grace Poe Llamanzares is not about ready to give up her lofty ambition to become the next president despite glaring evidence that she is not qualified to run in the 2016 national elections based on her questionable citizenship and residency requirements.
Senator Poe Llamanzares has a remarkable trait as a persistent candidate despite overwhelming odds against her in the pursuit of her presidential quest. Even after the Commission on Elections (Comelec) en banc’s recent decision upholding two earlier rulings on Poe’s disqualification cases, the neophyte lady solon is still refusing to give up her presidential dream.
And why not? There are rumors that she is now apparently getting support from Malacañang. Reliable sources have said that Malacanang had a hand in the recent issuance of a temporary restraining order lby Supreme Court Chief Justice Lourdes Sereno against Comelec on her disqualification case.
With the TRO, Comelec is barred from effecting its disqualification ruling on Poe Llamanzares and from removing her name from the list of presidential candidates.
There are also rumors circulating that Poe Llamanzares is actually the preferred presidential candidate of President Aquino. The anointed one – Mar Roxas – is still way behind the other presidential candidates in all surveys.
Sen. Poe Llamanzares and her sycophant political allies and supporters are still dreaming that with the “behind-the-scene” backing of President Aquino, the neophyte Senator will be able to hurdle all her current legal problems concerning her citizenship and residency requirement issues. However, her chances of finally going “over the hump” on the numerous legal obstacles she is facing before the Supreme Court appears to be dim.
On one hand, there is now way for her to submit as evidence concrete proof that she has Filipino parents and relatives that have resided in the Philippines. Being a foundling and adopted by screen idols Susan Roces and the late Fernando Poe Jr, Poe Llamanzares can only hope and dream that the Supreme Court will rule in her favor.
I expect the Supreme Court to decide on her political fate based on the country’s current election laws requirements for all candidates seeking elective position in government as mandated in the Constitution. Only last week, the Supreme Court upheld an earlier decision of the Comelec disqualifying a mayoral candidate from Northern Luzon for repeatedly using his American passport despite reacquiring Filipino citizenship.
This is bad news for presidential candidate Poe Llamanzares. She has a similar case with that of the disqualified mayoral candidate. It was found out that the aspiring town mayor candidate used his American passport twice in 2011 and 2012.
In her case, Bureau of Immigration records showed that the neophyte solon used her US passport 21 times from 2003 to 2009 every time she travels. It was also found out that based on US records and unearthed by her political opponents, she only renounced her American citizenship in June 2012. Her US passport was last renewed in December of 2011 based also on US records.
The Supreme Court should act immediately on her disqualification in order to prevent any confusion or legal problems that might arise in the event that she wins the election and later on disqualified.
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I commend Senator Juan Ponce Enrile for initiating the reopening of the Mamasapano Massacre last year, which resulted in the death of 44 gallant members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) in Mindanao.
It is only proper and fitting that relatives of the slain members the PNP’s Special Action Force (SAF) get the justice they deserve. President Aquino promised the relatives of the slain cops financial aid, justice and even scholarship for the orphans. But up of this time, only half of what President Aquino have said were fulfilled.
It is almost a year now, yet no one has been charged for the gruesome killing of the 44 PNPO officers. Worse, to the detriment and dismay of many of those who survived the massacre, President Aquino rescinded the proposal of the PNP Command to bestow medals to some police officers who took part in the botched police operation in Mindanao.
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It is now too late for former MRT General Manager Al Vitangcol to lay the blame on Transportation Secretary Joseph Abaya regarding the anomalous $1.5 million maintenance contract for commuter trains.
He should have “fingered” Abaya and presidential candidate Mar Roxas as the responsible parties involved in the awarding for the contract long before Vitangcol resigned from his post. Vitangcol should now have the “balls” to name the people who he claimed , tried to silence him from “spilling the beans” regarding the anomalous contract.
Abaya, I believe, should be charged too since he was the one who signed and approved the anomalous contract, without the benefit of a public bidding.
Abaya and 19 other co-respondents were dropped by the Ombudsman from the case, however. And Vitangcol is now facing graft charges before the Ombudsman in connection with the controversial contract.
The case of Vitangcol is no different from the case of the Customs Commissioner Philip Sevilla who quit from his post because of his inability to prevent smugglers from plying their trade in Port Area.
He then blamed Senators and Congressmen and Cabinet members and their families for coddling smugglers. When pressed by the media to identify these influential politicians and cabinet members and their families, he refused to “spill the beans.”
I hope “Balsy” and her husband gave Sevilla a nice “pabaon” when he left the customs bureau.