THE Solicitor General has insisted that Senator Grace Poe, a foundling, is a natural-born citizen who has satisfied the 10-year residency requirement and is therefore is qualified to run for president.
In a memorandum he filed before the Supreme Court on Monday, Solicitor General Florin Hilbay said the Commission on Elections erred when it canceled Poe’s Certificate of Candidacy over her citizenship and her supposed lack of residency.
Hilbay filed his memo even as Poe on Wednesday called administration standard bearer Manuel Roxas II the “driver of a stalled vehicle.”
She took a swipe at Roxas after Roxas alluded to her as an inexperienced driver during the debate organized by the Comelec in Cagayan de Oro City on Sunday.
Hilbay said Poe was a natural-born citizen based on the 1935, 1973 and 1987 Constitutions.
“The inclusive policy to consider foundlings as natural-born Filipino citizens is carried over into the 1973 and 1987 Constitutions,” Hilbay said.
“As with the 1935 Constitution, the deliberations of 1973 and 1987 Constitutions are bereft of any evidence to show any change in the policy begun in 1935.”
Hilbay said Poe was a natural-born Filipino based on her physical features and the place where she was found. He said foundlings were a discrete and insular minority who should be accorded fundamental political rights.
He said Poe reacquired her natural-born Philippine citizenship when she availed herself of repatriation under Republic Act 9225.
“She executed an oath of allegiance to the Republic of the Philippines on 07 July 2006; and she filed with the Bureau of Immigration a petition for reacquisition of Philippine citizenship on 10 July 2006, which was granted in an order dated 18 July 2006,” Hilbay said.
He said Poe had validly renounced her US citizenship and had been a resident in the country for at least 10 years before the elections in May.
“The Comelec decision to shift the burden of evidence on petitioner places an undue burden on the exercise of a fundamental political right of a member of a discrete and insular minority that has a right to equal protection in general and a right to equal access to opportunities for public service,” Hilbay said.