CASE:
**Summary:** Mary Grace Natividad S. Poe-Llamanzares, a foundling adopted by celebrity couple Ronald Allan Kelley Poe and Jesusa Sonora Poe, faced legal challenges regarding her citizenship and eligibility to run for public office in the Philippines.
SPONSORED
Ads.
**Parties:**
- Mary Grace Natividad S. Poe-Llamanzares (petitioner)
- Commission on Elections (COMELEC)
- Estrella C. Elamparo (respondent)
Ads.
**Arguments:**
- The petitioner argued that she is a natural-born Filipino citizen by virtue of her adoption by Filipino parents and her subsequent reacquisition of Philippine citizenship under Republic Act No. 9225.
- COMELEC and Estrella C. Elamparo argued that the petitioner did not meet the residency and natural-born citizenship requirements for presidential candidates, given her foundling status and previous American citizenship.
Ads.
- Petitioner was found abandoned as a newborn in 1968 and was adopted by Ronald Allan Kelley Poe and Jesusa Sonora Poe.
- Despite her adoption, discrepancies in her official documents led to legal issues regarding her citizenship and eligibility.
- Petitioner lived in the United States for several years, got married there, and became a naturalized American citizen.
- She returned to the Philippines with her family, reacquired Philippine citizenship, and held public positions.
- The case centered around her qualifications to run for President in the 2016 Philippine elections, challenging her citizenship and residency status.
RELATED
Ads.
**Procedural Process:**
The case originated from three separate petitions filed by Francisco S. Tatad, Antonio P. Contreras, and Amado D. Valdez against petitioner before the COMELEC, which were consolidated and raffled to its First Division. The petitions challenged petitioner's eligibility for the presidency based on her citizenship and residency qualifications.
Ads.
**Issues:**
The main legal questions addressed were:
1. Whether petitioner lacked the requisite residency and citizenship to qualify for the Presidency.
2. Whether international conventions or treaties could support petitioner's claim as a natural-born citizen.
3. Whether petitioner's status as a foundling affected her natural-born citizenship.
4. Whether the COMELEC had jurisdiction to decide the qualifications of a candidate.
Ads.
**Supreme Court Ruling:**
The Supreme Court annulled and set aside the resolutions of the COMELEC, declaring petitioner, Mary Grace Natividad Sonora Poe-Llamanzares, qualified to be a candidate for President in the National and Local Elections of 9 May 2016. The Court held that the COMELEC's resolutions were tainted with grave abuse of discretion, and petitioner was a natural-born Filipino citizen and met the residency requirements.
Ads.
The Court ruled that foundlings, like petitioner, are entitled to Filipino citizenship under international law and Philippine statutes. The COMELEC's denial of petitioner's natural-born citizenship status based on her foundling status was deemed discriminatory and irrational. The Court emphasized that the burden of proof was on the respondents to show that petitioner is not a Filipino citizen, and the evidence overwhelmingly supported her Filipino parentage. Additionally, the Court clarified that the COMELEC does not have jurisdiction to decide a candidate's qualifications; such determinations must be made in a prior proceeding before an authority properly vested with jurisdiction. Ads.
That the Philippines is not a party to the 1930 Hague Convention nor to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness does not mean that their principles are not binding. While the Philippines is not a party to the 1930 Hague Convention, it is a signatory to the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, Article 15(1) ofwhich131 effectively affirms Article 14 of the 1930 Hague Convention. Article 2 of the 1961 "United Nations Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness" merely "gives effect" to Article 15(1) of the UDHR.132 In Razon v. Tagitis, 133 this Court noted that the Philippines had not signed or ratified the "International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance." Yet, we ruled that the proscription against enforced disappearances in the said convention was nonetheless binding as a "generally accepted principle of international law." Razon v. Tagitis is likewise notable for declaring the ban as a generally accepted principle of international law although the convention had been ratified by only sixteen states and had not even come into force and which needed the ratification of a minimum of twenty states. Additionally, as petitioner points out, the Court was content with the practice of international and regional state organs, regional state practice in Latin America, and State Practice in the United States.
Current legislation reveals the adherence of the Philippines to this generally accepted principle of international law. In particular, R.A. No. 8552, R.A. No. 8042 and this Court's Rules on Adoption, expressly refer to "Filipino children." In all of them, foundlings are among the Filipino children who could be adopted. Likewise, it has been pointed that the DFA issues passports to foundlings. Passports are by law, issued only to citizens. This shows that even the executive department, acting through the DFA, considers foundlings as Philippine citizens. Ads.
Adopting these legal principles from the 1930 Hague Convention and the 1961 Convention on Statelessness is rational and reasonable and consistent with the jus sanguinis regime in our Constitution. The presumption of natural-born citizenship of foundlings stems from the presumption that their parents are nationals of the Philippines. As the empirical data provided by the PSA show, that presumption is at more than 99% and is a virtual certainty.
In sum, all of the international law conventions and instruments on the matter of nationality of foundlings were designed to address the plight of a defenseless class which suffers from a misfortune not of their own making. We cannot be restrictive as to their application if we are a country which calls itself civilized and a member of the community of nations.
R.A. No. 9225 is a repatriation statute and has been described as such in several cases. They include Sobejana-Condon v. COMELEC141 where we described it as an "abbreviated repatriation process that restores one's Filipino citizenship x x x." Also included is Parreno v. Commission on Audit,142 which cited Tabasa v. Court of Appeals,143 where we said that "[t]he repatriation of the former Filipino will allow him to recover his natural-born citizenship. Parreno v. Commission on Audit144 is categorical that "if petitioner reacquires his Filipino citizenship (under R.A. No. 9225), he will ... recover his natural-born citizenship."
The COMELEC construed the phrase "from birth" in the definition of natural citizens as implying "that natural-born citizenship must begin at birth and remain uninterrupted and continuous from birth." R.A. No. 9225 was obviously passed in line with Congress' sole prerogative to determine how citizenship may be lost or reacquired. Congress saw it fit to decree that natural-born citizenship may be reacquired even if it had been once lost. It is not for the COMELEC to disagree with the Congress' determination.
Ads.
More importantly, COMELEC's position that natural-born status must be continuous was already rejected in Bengson III v. HRET145 where the phrase "from birth" was clarified to mean at the time of birth: "A person who at the time of his birth, is a citizen of a particular country, is a natural-born citizen thereof." Neither is "repatriation" an act to "acquire or perfect" one's citizenship. In Bengson III v. HRET, this Court pointed out that there are only two types of citizens under the 1987 Constitution: natural-born citizen and naturalized, and that there is no third category for repatriated citizens:
It is apparent from the enumeration of who are citizens under the present Constitution that there are only two classes of citizens: (1) those who are natural-born and (2) those who are naturalized in accordance with law. A citizen who is not a naturalized Filipino, ie., did not have to undergo the process of naturalization to obtain Philippine citizenship, necessarily is a natural-born Filipino. Noteworthy is the absence in said enumeration of a separate category for persons who, after losing Philippine citizenship, subsequently reacquire it. The reason therefor is clear: as to such persons, they would either be natural-born or naturalized depending on the reasons for the loss of their citizenship and the mode prescribed by the applicable law for the reacquisition thereof. As respondent Cruz was not required by law to go through naturalization proceedings in order to reacquire his citizenship, he is perforce a natural-born Filipino. As such, he possessed all the necessary qualifications to be elected as member of the House of Representatives.146
Ads.
Lawyer t-shirt
Lastly, it was repeatedly pointed out during the oral arguments that petitioner committed a falsehood when she put in the spaces for "born to" in her application for repatriation under R.A. No. 9225 the names of her adoptive parents, and this misled the BI to presume that she was a natural-born Filipino. It has been contended that the data required were the names of her biological parents which are precisely unknown.
This position disregards one important fact - petitioner was legally adopted. One of the effects of adoption is "to sever all legal ties between the biological parents and the adoptee, except when the biological parent is the spouse of the adoptee."149 Under R.A. No. 8552, petitioner was also entitled to an amended birth certificate "attesting to the fact that the adoptee is the child of the adopter(s)" and which certificate "shall not bear any notation that it is an amended issue."150 That law also requires that "[a]ll records, books, and papers relating to the adoption cases in the files of the court, the Department [of Social Welfare and Development], or any other agency or institution participating in the adoption proceedings shall be kept strictly confidential."151 The law therefore allows petitioner to state that her adoptive parents were her birth parents as that was what would be stated in her birth certificate anyway. And given the policy of strict confidentiality of adoption records, petitioner was not obligated to disclose that she was an adoptee.
Ads.
Clearly, to avoid a direct ruling on the qualifications of petitioner, which it cannot make in the same case for cancellation of COC, it resorted to opinionatedness which is, moreover, erroneous. The whole process undertaken by COMELEC is wrapped in grave abuse of discretion. Ads.
All put together, in the matter of the citizenship and residence of petitioner for her candidacy as President of the Republic, the questioned Resolutions of the COMELEC in Division and En Banc are, one and all, deadly diseased with grave abuse of discretion from root to fruits.
WHEREFORE, the petition is GRANTED. The Resolutions, to wit:
1. dated 1 December 2015 rendered through the COMELEC Second Division, in SPA No. 15-001 (DC), entitled Estrella C. Elamparo, petitioner, vs. Mary Grace Natividad Sonora Poe-Llamanzares, respondent, stating that:
[T]he Certificate of Candidacy for President of the Republic of the Philippines in the May 9, 2016 National and Local Elections filed by respondent Mary Grace Natividad Sonora Poe-Llamanzares is hereby GRANTED.
2. dated 11 December 2015, rendered through the COMELEC First Division, in the consolidated cases SPA No. 15-002 (DC) entitled Francisco S. Tatad, petitioner, vs. Mary Grace Natividad Sonora Poe-Llamanzares, respondent; SPA No. 15-007 (DC) entitled Antonio P. Contreras, petitioner, vs. Mary Grace Natividad Sonora Poe-Llamanzares, respondent; and SPA No. 15-139 (DC) entitled Amado D. Valdez, petitioner, v. Mary Grace Natividad Sonora Poe-Llamanzares, respondent; stating that:
WHEREFORE, premises considered, the Commission RESOLVED, as it hereby RESOLVES, to GRANT the petitions and cancel the Certificate of Candidacy of MARY GRACE NATIVIDAD SONORA POE-LLAMANZARES for the elective position of President of the Republic of the Philippines in connection with the 9 May 2016 Synchronized Local and National Elections.
3. dated 23 December 2015 of the COMELEC En Banc, upholding the 1 December 2015 Resolution of the Second Division stating that:
WHEREFORE, premises considered, the Commission RESOLVED, as it hereby RESOLVES, to DENY the Verified Motion for Reconsideration of SENATOR MARY GRACE NATIVIDAD SONORA POE-LLAMANZARES. The Resolution dated 11 December 2015 of the Commission First Division is AFFIRMED.
4. dated 23 December 2015 of the COMELEC En Banc, upholding the 11 December 2015 Resolution of the First Division.
are hereby ANNULED and SET ASIDE. Petitioner MARY GRACE NATIVIDAD SONORA POE-LLAMANZARES is DECLARED QUALIFIED to be a candidate for President in the National and Local Elections of 9 May 2016.
SO ORDERED.
Ads.
Ads.
Comments