RETIRED Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban on Monday defended Senator Grace Poe and slammed her critics’ refusal to accept the Supreme Court decision declaring her qualified to run for president in the May 9 elections.
Panganiban said her critics’ behavior contrasted with the humility displayed by Poe before the release of the 9-6 high court ruling when the leading presidential candidate said she would be willing to accept any decision by the high court.
Panganiban made his statement even as the spokesman of Liberal Party standard bearer Manuel Roxas II on Monday slammed Poe for “doing a Binay” after she criticized the Aquino administration’s Straight Path for derailing her bid for the presidency.
“Senator Poe is doing a VP Binay with her tirades, that the administration has something to do [about her woes.],” Rep. Barry Gutierrez said.
“From the very start, the policy of the Daang Matuwid coalition has been very clear,” Rep. Barry Gutierrez said.
“We cannot understand Senator Poe. She got all that she wants, there are no roadblocks to her presidential bid, but it seems that she cannot move on.”
Panganiban said Poe’s “phenomenal victory” at the Supreme Court “was severely criticized even when the text of the decision had not yet been released.”
“In fact, on the very day the vote was announced on March 8, some of her opponents instantly crowed over TV-radio that they would file a motion for reconsideration,” Panganiban said.
Visit. Presidential candidate Grace Poe visits Jaro Church in Iloilo City on Monday. Jay MoRales
“Without having seen the decision, one had the temerity to say that the nine majority justices committed a ‘culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust.’ If that is not hubris, I don’t know what is.”
Panganiban said that while Poe’s opponents were entitled to their opinions, he could not help but compare theirs with what Poe had repeatedly said before the high court’s verdict was announced: “I will accept whatever the Supreme Court decides, whether favorable to me or not.”
“If that is not humility, I do not know what is,” Panganiban said.
Voting 9-6, the high court granted Poe’s petition seeking to set aside two decisions of the Commission on Elections canceling her Certificate of Candidacy for president allegedly due to her false statements regarding her citizenship and residence.
Panganiban pointed to the similarities between Poe’s case and that of his late father, Fernando Poe Jr. whose citizenship was also questioned before the high court when he ran for president in 2004.
