Justice Brions Dissenting Opinion

Facts: Grace Poe is running for the Presidency in the Phillipine 2016 election, the
Comelec decided to disqualify her for not meeting the residency requirement and
anomalies regarding her citizenship.
Issue: Whether or not Grace Poe is a Natural Born Citizen?
Held: No, Grace Poe is a not a natural-born Filipino. A person who does not possess
Philippine citizenship, i.e., an alien, cannot participate in the country's political
processes. The 1935 Constitution defined who the citizens of the Philippines then
were and the means of acquiring Philippine citizenship at the time the
respondent was found (and born). This constitutional definition must
necessarily govern the petitioner's case. As repeatedly mentioned above, Article IV of
the 1935 Constitution generally follows the jus sanguinis rule: Philippine
citizenship is determined by blood, i.e., by the citizenship of one's parents. The
Constitution itself provides the instances when jus sanguinis is not followed:
for inhabitants who had been granted Philippine citizenship at the time the
Constitution was adopted; those who were holding public office at the time
of its adoption; and those who are naturalized as Filipinos in accordance
with law. As earlier explained, the constitutional listing is exclusive. It neither
provided nor allowed for the citizenship of foundlings except through
naturalization. Since the obligation under the treaties can be complied with by
facilitating a child's right to acquire a nationality, the presence of naturalization
laws that allow persons to acquire Philippine citizenship already constitutes
compliance.
The UDHR (United Nation Declaration on Human Rights) is not a treaty that directly
creates legally-binding obligations for its signatories. It is an international document
recognizing inalienable human rights, which eventually led to the creation of several
legally-binding treaties, such as the ICCPR and the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). Thus, the Philippines is not legallyobligated to comply with the provisions of the UDHR per se. It signed the UDHR
because it recognizes the rights and values enumerated in the UDHR; this recognition
led it to sign both the ICCPR and the ICESCR.
The right to acquire a nationality is different from the grant of an outright Filipino
nationality. Under the United Nations' Convention on the Rights of the Child and
International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights, States are merely required
to recognize and facilitate the child's right to acquire a nationality. Determining
the parameters of citizenship is a sovereign decision that inherently discriminates by
providing who may and may not be considered Philippine citizens, and how
Philippine citizenship may be acquired. These distinctions had been ratified by the
Filipino nation acting as its own sovereign through the 193 5 Constitution and
should not be disturbed.
To say under these circumstances that foundlings were in fact intended to be
included in the Filipino parentage provision is clearly already a modification of the
records to reflect what they do not say. The petitioner appears to forget that, as
discussed above, the terms of the Constitution are clear - they simply did not provide
for the situation of foundlings based on parentage - but left the door open for the
use of another measure, their naturalization.
In light of all these considerations, Justice Brion voted for the reversal of the
majority's ruling granting the petitions based on the COMELEC's grave abuse of
discretion. In lieu thereof, the Court should enter a Revised Ruling dismissing the
petitions and ordering the COMELEC to proceed with the cancellation of the
Certificate of Candidacy of petitioner Grace Poe.