Just now, I came across an article from www.gmanews.tv which a friend of mine says carries a misleading headline because he says it may give the impression that Senate Electoral Tribunal Chair Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio had rendered a decision regarding the citizenship of Grace Poe.
In the body of the article it reads:
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“So if right now, there is no law promulgated by Congress that foundlings can be deemed citizens of the Philippines, customary international law can supply that gap?,” Carpio asked David’s lawyer Manuelito Luna, who answered in the affirmative.
“If there is a customary international law saying foundlings can be deemed citizens of the country where they were found, we apply that under the principle of incorporation. It is deemed as municipal law,” Carpio said.
The senior magistrate, however, quickly added: “But you are still a naturalized citizen, not natural born. Because if customary international law says a foundling is natural born, it will violate our Constitution and we cannot apply it here.”
“If tomorrow you happen to find out by DNA matching that your parent is Filipino, you can still prove that you are natural-born,” said the magistrate.
“So we have solved the problem counsel? You will agree with me that Senator Poe [is] at least a citizen of the Philippines,” Carpio asked Luna, who answered, “Yes.”
Carpio, however, added that any decision on citizenship is never final.
(Read the rest of the article here)
Rather than stating a decision or what could be a decision on Poe’s citizenship, it can be clearly seen that Carpio was throwing out questions and possible interpretations of various laws.
Still on the citizenship issue, another friend of mine says:
If parents are known, then he/she is not a foundling anymore but an “abandoned child” meaning a child abandoned by her (known) parents.
A naturalized person is someone who obtained citizenship by court decree or by an act of congress. A foundling did not and cannot have done either. If she does not fall under either, then she is a natural born because there are only two types of citizen, natural born or naturalized.
Under our constitution, a natural born citizen is a citizen from birth without having to perform any act to acquire or perfect citizenship. Following the conventions cited by Justice Carpio, GP is a citizen “without having to perform any act to acquire or perfect it.
Never mind that my favorite source of political intrigue told me, “Carpio is with Roxas. His partners Cruz and Marcelo are in the inner circle of Roxas. This is the breakaway of The Firm. The other half of which is with Binay.”
Thing is, Ilda and I agree that the only way for Roxas and Binay to win over Grace Poe is to make sure she doesn’t run for president. And I guess, that was pretty much the reason that both candidates were trying to convince her to be their running mate.
This objective now seems ever more paramount as the latest SWS survey (regardless of how screwy it seems) puts Poe, yet again, on top of the heap.
Fellow GRP writer and Manila Times columnist Ben Kritz hopes Poe “will be ready for the sh*train that’s headed her way. But I bet she has not the vaguest understanding of it. This is going to be fun to watch.”
While I am NOT ROOTING for Senator Grace Poe, this thing about her bid for the presidency seems to have all the elements of a good TV political/legal drama series — at least, for me.
Perhaps Ben would liken it to one of those Youtube videos where mice are dropped into a tank with a hungry piranha.
First there was the bit where two other presidential candidates were trying to get her as a running mate, with Roxas and Binay going about it like typical mafiosos. Then there was that long wait for her to announce her decision on whether or not she would run for president. And then, now, we have this citizenship issue hanging over her bid for the presidency.
I wonder what will happen next. Will Grace Poe be able to run for President? Let’s wait and see.
Writer.
every one is underestimating the intelligence of Grace Poe and that’s just well and good. that’s to her advantage after all.
mar can still win through cheating though. so no one in Grace Poe’s camp is dumb enough to think victory’s in the bag.
jesus. Living in Manila is as horrible as living in North Korea although I prefer North Korea because it’s more quiet there.
Yup. I thought so too.
What if we sue the countries who colonized us many years ago?
Grace Poe may have been an Alien, dropped by a UFO, and assumed the identity of a Filipino.
Any abandoned child, without known parents abandoned in the Philippines, is not a Filipino citizen. They can be deported….to where?
Maybe , thrown to the sea, or to the outer space, where they belong.
If we have reasoning like this, to interpret our laws. No wonder, our country’s judicial system is broken…Carpio is an idiot…
If abandoned child is considered natural born Filipino, then a child whose parents are both foreigners can be considered natural born Filipino if born in the Philippines and abandoned by the non-Filipino parents. This can be abused by foreigners and dangerous.
So, you take the DNA of an abandoned child. And , if the DNA does not match, the Filipino DNA. Where do you put the child?
Go on seek countries, to match the DNA?
Why not let the child live in the Philippines, and be accepted as a Filipino…
Grace Poe looks like a Pilipino, to me; can speak Tagalog. Let us put this stupid legality. And talk about the problems of the country. How they can solve them.
But that’s what our (fucked up) Constitution says. Rules are rules.
If these three (Poe, Roxas, Binay) are our only choices to be the next president, then I would like to suggest that we follow the rule of the majority. Even if there are more than three candidates the majority rule applies. The winning candidate should have more than 50% of the total number of voters to be considered winner. If no one comes up with more than 50% vote then the process is repeated. With a new set of candidates. This way, we can be truly sure that whoever wins the election, is chosen by the majority.
Then again reality is, we are now being fed crappy candidates to choose from. What can 1 voter do?
Perfect – more drama to fuel the popularity of a candidate.
Making this citizenship issue talk of the town means free campaign advertising for Grace.
These demolition jobs run have the opposite effect. Or could this be the actual game plan?
Looks like an Obama in the making.
If I understand this article correctly,Binay and Roxas fear Grace Poe’s popularity,and are trying to stop her running for President by raising doubts about her parentage/birth/nationality/citizenship/whatever.
Binay and Roxas wish to corral Grace Poe’s popularity for their electoral campaign by having her run for Vice-President on their ticket.
This seems to mean that she is not qualified to be President,but she is qualified to be Vice-President,a post that is one fatal incident from becoming President,a post she is not qualified to hold.
It may well be that I have had too many or not enough glasses of lunch,but could somebody please spell out what I am missing in this argument?
let’s see…to prevent her from running for president, plan A: they tried to recruit her as their vice-president…she refused so on to Plan B:, raise issue of citizenship again with the intent of preventing her to run for presidency..there maybe a Plan C…nothing here says she is not qualified to run as president…they just don’t want her to run as president that’s all
You have missed my point.Binay and Roxas are raising the question of citizenship to stop Poe running for president,but both were happy to have her as running mate.I imagine that the ‘doubts’existed beforehand,so,to me as a foreigner,it leaves Binay and Roxas lokking totally incompetent.After all,if Poe had run as VP candidate with one,then surely the other was going to spray mud during the campaign.
A good countenance is a letter of recommendation.
It does not matter how much reform programs are put in place to end graft and corruption in the Philippines, or, which candidate will win the next presidential election, because it will never happen.
The Philippines has been ruled by deeply-entrenched political and economic dynasties–that have been terrorizing the population and fleecing the country’s wealth–for generations. This legacy of graft and corruption is not about to change just because Filipinos wanted, prayed, and hoped it will do so on its own.
It is time ALL FILIPINOS face up to the truth about their true nature:
‘The Philippines is corrupt because the people are corrupt; the people are corrupt because the culture is corrupt; the culture is corrupt because the values of the Filipino people are corrupt.’
This is the whole truth about the Philippines and its people; and, anyone who denies it is a fool, who is blinded by his or her own stupid ego. These fools are not hurting anybody—with their utter denial—but their own country and people.