THE majority of the Supreme Court justices led by Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno declared Senator Grace Poe eligible to run for president in this year’s elections, but a senior magistrate who dissented claimed there was no majority vote on Poe’s qualification as a natural-born Filipino citizen.
Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said the high court’s voting on the issue of Poe’s citizenship was 7-5-3.
But Sereno disputed his claim, saying “it is most unfortunate that one of the dissenting opinions opens with a statement that tries to cast uncertainty on an already tense situation.”
Sereno denied Carpio even as vice presidential frontrunner Francis Escudero said his running mate’s detractors should respect the Supreme Court decision allowing her to run for president.
Poe’s political opponents should focus on explaining their platforms to the electorate to help voters decide wisely come May 9.
“Now that the any obstacle in the candidacy of Senator Grace has been removed, I hope this will be accepted and respected by her opponents,” Escudero said.
On Tuesday last week, the high court voted 9-6 to grant Poe’s petitions seeking to reverse the Commission on Elections’ decisions canceling her Certificate of Candidacy from the presidential race over the questions on her citizenship and eligibility.
But Carpio insisted that only seven of the nine justices in the majority ruling were of the opinion that foundlings like Poe were considered natural-born citizens.
They were Sereno and Associate Justices Presbitero Velasco Jr., Lucas Bersamin, Jose Perez, Jose Mendoza, Marvic Leonen and Francis Jardeleza.
Bersamin and Mendoza concurred with the majority ruling but did qualify their concurrence as to whether they also agreed on the findings on Poe’s citizenship and residency eligibilities.
Associate Justices Diosdado Peralta and Benjamin Caguioa joined the separate dissenting opinion of Associate Justice Mariano del Castillo that the high court should not rule on the citizenship issue on the case.
They held that the Comelec committed a grave abuse of discretion since Poe did not make deliberate misrepresentation on her 10-year residency status, but said there was no need for the high court to determine Poe’s eligibility on the citizenship requirement under the Constitution.
Carpio was joined by Associate Justices Teresita Leonardo-De Castro, Arturo Brion, Estela Perlas-Bernabe and Bienvenido Reyes in his dissenting opinion that Poe was not a natural-born Filipino and lacked the residency requirement.
He said that meant their actual voting on the citizenship issue was 7-5-3.
“What is clear and undeniable is that there is no majority of this Court that holds that petitioner Mary Grace Natividad Poe Llamanzares is a natural-born Filipino citizen,” Carpio said.
Rule 12, Section 1 of the high court’s Internal Rules requires that 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.”
For a case where all 15 justices voted, at least eight votes are needed to achieve a majority ruling.
Carpio said the majority ruling provided an “anomalous situation” beyond the intent of the framers of the Constitution.
Sereno disagreed: “The dissent gives excessive weight to the fact that there are five justices in the minority who believe that petitioner does not have the qualification for the presidency, while ignoring the reality that there are at least seven justices who believe that petitioner possesses these qualifications.”
Sereno said there was a clear majority where seven of the nine justices who voted to grant the petitions of Poe agreed that Poe was natural-born. But only 12 of the 15 justices participated in the voting on the particular question.
“Out of the 12 members who voted on the substantive question on citizenship, a clear majority of seven voted in favor of petitioner,” Sereno said.
“As to residency, seven out of 13 voted that petitioner complied with the 10-year residency requirement.”
