MARATA, JOB BUDS

2018-1-003401

POE-LLAMANZARES vs. COMELEC

Grace Poe was found abandoned as a newborn by a certain Edgardo Militar, who passed on the
parental care and custody to Emiliano Militar and his wife. When Grace was five years old,
celebrity spouses Fernando Poe Jr. and Susan Roces adopted her. Grace Poe pursued her studies
abroad, married Teodoro Llamanzares, who is a citizen of both United States and the Philippines,
and moved to the US to be with her husband. Grace Poe acquired US citizenship as a result.
However, things changed when her father, Fernando Poe Jr., succumbed to grave illness. In order
to be with her mother, Grace Poe decided to move back to the Philippines along with her entire
family, and regained her Filipino citizenship in the process. Soon after, she filed her certificate of
candidacy to run for President of the Philippines. But her candidacy was contested by Estrella
Elamparo, Francisco Tatad, Antonio Contreras, and Amado Valdez, arguing that she isn’t a
natural-born Filipino citizen due to her foundling status and that she isn’t qualified to be a
candidate for the presidency.
The issue before the Supreme Court is whether or not Grace Poe should be allowed to run for
presidency in spite of the fact that she isn’t considered a natural-born Filipino citizen due to her
foundling status. In this case, the Court agreed with Grace Poe due to various reasons.
The first argument that Supreme Court has raised in deciding the case is that it is improbable for
foreigners to make babies in the Philippines and then abandon them when they go back to their
foreign land. The Solicitor General provided statistics to boost this argument, saying that the
statistical probability of a child born in the Philippines was 99.83%. This means that Grace Poe is
more likely to be a Filipino based on the statistics.
The second argument that the Supreme Court has raised in favouring Poe’s decision is the mention
of international conventions such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the UN
Convention on the Rights of a Child, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and
the 1930 Hague Convention on Certain Questions Relating to the Conflict of Nationality Laws.
The point of the Court in providing these international conventions is that every child is given the
right to nationality and citizenship, and that these rights should not be denied on the basis that the
child is a foundling or a stateless person.
The third argument that the Court uses in deciding the case is the notion that the Philippine
Constitution does not discriminate against foundlings. The Court mentions how the State should
render social justice and that the State should value the dignity of every human being that
guarantees full respect for human rights. What the Court is trying to say is that foundlings should
be granted full human rights, which includes the right to nationality and citizenship.

The main issue of this paper, however, is whether or not I agree with the Supreme Court’s ruling
on the case. In this case, I would say that I do agree with the Supreme Court’s decision.
To begin with, it is stated in Article 4, Section 2 of the Philippine Constitution that:
“Natural-born citizens are those who are citizens of the Philippines from birth without having to
perform any act to acquire or perfect their Philippine citizenship…”
It is true that Grace Poe is a foundling when she was discovered by Edgardo Militar, but she is
definitely a Filipino citizen. The question as to whether she is a natural-born citizen, I would say
yes, she is. That is because although we cannot pinpoint who her real parents are, she is definitely
a natural-born Filipino citizen. As the Court mentions, she has all the traits of a Filipino citizen
and she is likely to be a Filipino based on the statistical probabilities by the Solicitor General.
Grace Poe doesn’t need to perform any act or perfect her Philippine citizenship, because she is
considered a natural-born citizen as she was born in the Philippines. As it would be absurd for a
newborn child to be born in a foreign land and transported to the Philippines, Grace Poe is indeed
a natural-born citizen.
Going back to the international conventions that the Supreme Court cited, I would agree with the
Court on how they are applicable to Grace Poe. As said in the international conventions, every
child has a right to nationality and citizenship, and the Philippines should recognize that right thru
the principle of incorporation of international laws to domestic laws. Foundlings are citizens under
international law, so foundlings should also be considered citizens under domestic laws by
incorporation. In addition, Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights state that:
1. Everyone has the right to a nationality.
2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his
nationality.
As the Philippines is a party to the UDHR, I also agree with the Court that Article 15 of this
convention should be applied to domestic laws including the Constitution. Also, by logic that
everyone has a right to a nationality, even foundlings and stateless persons should be given that
right.