Representatives of the Makabayan bloc led by Rep. Neri Colmenares link arms with Sen. Grace Poe and Sen. Chiz Escudero during a solidarity event at the Quezon City Sports Club on Thursday. The group declared support for Team Galing at Puso in the 2016 election.(MNS photo)
MANILA (Mabuhay) – The Supreme Court decision declaring Sen. Grace Poe a natural-born Filipino and a resident of the Philippines should not be part of the law of the land because it practically “rewrote” the 1987 Philippine Constitution.
This was the statement of lawyer Manuelito Luna, counsel for former Sen. Francisco “Kit” Tatad, as he slammed the high tribunal’s decision, through a 9-6 vote, to overturn Poe’s disqualification and allow her to run for president in May.
Luna told reporters on Monday that their camp will file a motion for reconsideration “either Wednesday or Thursday” to contest the Poe main decision and seek its reversal.
Citing a revelation made by Associate Justice Antonio Carpio in his dissent, Luna said the high court could not declare Poe natural-born because the tribunal apparently failed to get a majority vote of eight in favor of the lawmaker’s citizenship, after the justices voted 7-5-3.
“Only seven justices or less than the majority of the SC voted to declare Poe presumptively natural-born. It binds no one. It cannot become part of the law of the land or jurisprudence,” Luna told reporters, citing Rule 12, Section 1 of the high tribunal’s Internal Rules.
Under the rules, all decisions and actions in court cases “shall be made up upon the concurrence of the majority of the Members of the Court who actually took part in the deliberation on the issues or issues involved and voted on them.”
In his dissent, Carpio said he belonged to the five who voted that Poe as a foundling is not a natural-born Filipino. He was joined by Associate Justices Teresita Leonardo-De Castro, Arturo Brion, Estela Perlas-Bernabe and Bienvenido Reyes.
Meanwhile, the seven who voted in favor of Poe were Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno and Associate Justices Presbitero Velasco Jr., Lucas Bersamin, Jose Perez, Jose Mendoza, Marvic Leonen and Francis Jardeleza.
The remaining three magistrates—Associate Justices Mariano del Castillo who was the original ponencia who voted against Poe; Associate Justice Diosdado Peralta and Associate Justice Benjamin Caguioa—all said the SC should not decide on Poe’s citizenship.
“The (main decision) is diametrically opposed to the Constitution, the rules, and the rulings in Reyes v. Comelec and Cerafica v. Comelec, among others,” said Luna.
“The seven (justices) practically re-wrote the Constitution through a judicial opinion resulting in the impermissible discrimination of half bloods, those whose mothers are Filipinos and covered by the 1935 Constitution,” he added.
Luna dismissed Sereno’s reasoning in her concurring opinion that the majority should only be seven out of 12 votes, not 15, because the votes of the three justices who refused to rule on citizenship should not be counted.
Luna insisted that all 15 votes should be considered in computing the majority. “In the TRO, the voting was 12-3. The voting to grant or not to grant petition was 9-6. Hence, the basis for computation for the number of majority should be 15 and the majority should be 8,” Luna said.
The TRO Luna was refering to was the one issued by the high tribunal in December last year stopping the Comelec from removing Poe’s name in the ballots it would be printing for the May polls.
In its main decision, the SC said the Comelec committed grave abuse of discretion when is still cancelled Poe’s certificate of candidacy even if the lawmaker had admitted that errors in her COC were honest mistakes and done in good faith. (MNS)