(Part 1)
Last week, a divided Supreme Court, voting 9 to 6, ruled that Senator Grace Poe is eligible to run for president in the May 2016 elections. The majority held that from a statistical perspective, it is very likely that Poe’s biological parents are Filipinos because she was discovered as a foundling in Iloilo; that from the birth statistics in Iloilo in the late 1960s submitted by the Solicitor General, it may be inferred that Poe was born to Filipino parents; and that the commitment of the Republic of the Philippines to the rules on international law warrant that conclusion.
The majority ruling has no legal foundation anywhere in the 1987 Constitution and, as pointed out by Justice Arturo Brion in his dissenting opinion in the Senate Electoral Tribunal case filed against Poe, there is nothing in any international covenant signed by the Philippines which categorically supports the sweeping assumptions the majority made in rendering judgment in favor of Poe.
Equally important is the fact that when it comes to who is qualified to run for president, the Constitution requires a fact—natural-born Philippine citizenship—and not a likelihood of one’s citizenship, or a statistical inference on one’s likely parents, as the majority relied on.
Simply put, the Constitution is not worded properly enough to accommodate Poe’s ambition to become president. Thus, if Poe wants to be president, she has to follow the proper procedure. First, Poe should get Congress to convene as a constituent assembly and propose amendments to the Constitution that will allow foundlings to run for president. Second, Poe must get Congress, this time sitting as a legislature, to enact a law calling for a plebiscite where the Filipino people will either ratify or reject the proposed amendments. If the people ratify the amendments, then Poe can validly run for president. Therefore, until the Constitution is properly amended, there is nothing in the charter to warrant Poe’s desire to run for the highest office in the land.
The Supreme Court does not have the power to propose amendments to the Constitution, or to enact a law calling for a plebiscite. It likewise cannot decide for the people whether or not any proposed amendment to the Constitution should be ratified. Poe’s critics maintain that the majority ruling amounts to precisely that—a judicial usurpation of the aforementioned constituent and legislative powers of Congress, as well as the power of the sovereign people to ratify amendments to the Constitution.
In other words, the majority of the Supreme Court held that Poe is a natural-born citizen of the Philippines, not on the basis of the Constitution, but on the basis of judicial fiat (or judicial legislation in Constitutional Law).
Poe’s case shows that the Supreme Court chose to interpret the provisions of the 1987 Constitution liberally, instead of strictly—as it did when it dismissed petitions filed a couple of years ago by public interest advocates seeking to enforce specific provisions of the charter.
One petition sought to compel the Commission on Elections to come up with rules against political dynasties because Congress refuses and continues to refuse to fulfill its constitutionally mandated duty to prohibit political dynasties. The other petition sought to compel the Department of Foreign Affairs to press the Philippine claim to North Borneo (Sabah) in the wake of a Malaysian crackdown on Filipino Muslims staking their historic claim to this valuable tract of land. Cited in the petition is the provision of the Constitution which defines the extent of the territory of the Philippines.
In dismissing the petition on political dynasties, the Supreme Court said it is powerless to order the Comelec to come out with a rule outlawing political dynasties because the language of the Constitution provides that only Congress may outlaw political dynasties. The Court did not explain why it applied a strict interpretation of the Constitution when the Constitution itself authorizes the Comelec to decide all questions affecting elections.
Moreover, an earlier ruling of the Supreme Court involving the aborted sale of the Manila Hotel categorically stated that the government should not be left in a quandary just because Congress refuses to perform a duty mandated by the Constitution. In that ruling, the Court said that the judiciary is empowered precisely to address problems where Congress does not want to perform specific acts mandated by the Constitution.
Despite the foregoing premises, the Supreme Court chose to uphold the strict letter of the Constitution. As a result, Congress will continue to refuse to prohibit political dynasties, and the Filipino people will just have to tolerate the endless list of political families which shamelessly dominate the elections to every public office within the reach of their influence.
The other petition—involving the Philippine claim to North Borneo (Sabah is the name the Malaysians gave to the territory), also ended on a sad note. History indicates that when Britain granted independence to Malaysia, London allowed Kuala Lumpur to exercise sovereignty over North Borneo. This is legally invalid because North Borneo was never a colonial territory of the British. It was only leased by the Sultan of Sulu to a British corporation. Before World War II, the United States repeatedly told Britain that North Borneo is not British property to give away by the British at will. The American advisory fell on deaf British ears, or more specifically, British ears that pretended to be deaf.
Since the time of President Diosdado Macapagal, the Philippines was already keen on taking back North Borneo from Malaysia. Where Macapagal left, President Ferdinand Marcos continued. Sadly, Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr.’s exposé in the Senate about a Philippine military plan to take North Borneo by force aborted the mission and convinced Malaysia to strengthen its hold on North Borneo. Thanks to Ninoy, the Philippines lost its only realistic chance to get back North Borneo. Since then, the Malaysians have made it a point to maltreat and discriminate against Filipinos residing in North Borneo.
