Poe-Llamanzares vs.

COMELEC
and Elamparo.
G.R. No. 221698-700, March 8,
2016
Facts:
In her COC for presidency for the May
2016 elections, Grace Poe declared
that she is a natural-born citizen and
that her residence in the Philippines
up to the day before 9 May 2016
would be 10 years and 11 months
counted from 24 May 2005.
May 24, 2005 was the day she came
to the Philippines after deciding to
stay in the PH for good. Before that
however, and even afterwards, she
has been going to and fro between US
and Philippines. She was born in
1968, found as newborn infant in Iloilo,
and was legally adopted.
She
immigrated to the US in 1991 and was
naturalized as American citizen in
2001. On July 18, 2006, the BI
granted her petition declaring that she
had reacquired her Filipino citizenship
under RA 9225. She registered as a
voter and obtained a new Philippine
passport. In 2010, before assuming
her post as an appointed chairperson
of the MTRCB, she renounced her
American citizenship to satisfy the RA
9225 requirement. From then on, she
stopped using her American passport.
Petitions were filed before the
COMELEC to deny or cancel her
candidacy on the ground particularly,
among others, that she cannot be
considered a natural-born Filipino
citizen since she cannot prove that her
biological parents or either of them
were Filipinos. The COMELEC en banc
cancelled her candidacy on the ground
that she is in want of citizenship and
residence requirements, and that she
committed
material
misrepresentations in her COC.
On certiorari, the SC reversed the
ruling and held (9-6 votes) that Poe is
qualified
as
a
candidate
for

Presidency. Three justices, however,

abstained to vote on the naturalborncitizenship issue.
Issue 1: W/N the COMELEC has
jurisdiction to rule on the issue of
qualifications of candidates
Held:
No.
Article IX-C, Sec 2 of the
Constitution provides for the powers
and functions of the COMELEC, and
deciding on the qualifications or lack
thereof of a candidate is not one
among them.
In contrast, the Constitution provides
that only the SET and HRET tribunals
have sole jurisdiction over the election
contests, returns, and qualifications of
their respective members, whereas
over the President and Vice President,
only the SC en banc has sole
jurisdiction. As for the qualifications
of candidates for such positions, the
Constitution is silent. There is simply
no
authorized
proceeding
in
determining
the ineligibility of
candidates before elections. Such lack
of provision cannot be supplied by a
mere rule, and for the COMELEC to
assimilate grounds for ineligibility into
grounds for disqualificationin Rule 25
in its rules of procedures would be
contrary to the intent of the
Constitution.
Hence, the COMELEC committed grave
abuse of discretion when it decided on
the qualification issue of Grace as a
candidate in the same case for
cancellation of her COC.
Issue 2: W/N Grace Poe-Llamanzares
is a natural-born Filipino citizen (Read
Dissent)
Held:
Yes, Grace Poe might be and is
considerably a natural-born Filipino.
For that, she satisfies one of the
constitutional requirements that only
natural-born Filipinos may run for
presidency.

First, there is a high probability that

Grace Poes parents are Filipinos. Her
physical features are typical of
Filipinos. The fact that she was
abandoned as an infant in a
municipality where the population of
the Philippines is overwhelmingly
Filipinos such that there would be
more than 99% chance that a child
born in such province is a Filipino is
also a circumstantial evidence of her
parents nationality. That probability
and the evidence on which it is based
are admissible under Rule 128, Section
4 of the Revised Rules on Evidence. To
assume otherwise is to accept the
absurd, if not the virtually impossible,
as the norm.
Second, by votes of 7-5, the SC
pronounced that foundlings are as
a class, natural-born citizens.
This is based on the finding that
the deliberations of the 1934
Constitutional Convention show
that
the
framers
intended
foundlings to be covered by the
enumeration.
While the 1935
Constitutions
enumeration
is
silent as to foundlings, there is no
restrictive language which would
definitely
exclude
foundlings
either. Because of silence and
ambiguity in the enumeration
with respect to foundlings, the SC
felt the need to examine the
intent of the framers.
Third,
that
foundlings
are
automatically conferred with naturalborn citizenship is supported by
treaties and the general principles of
international
law.
Although
the
Philippines is not a signatory to some
of these treaties, it adheres to the
customary rule to presume foundlings
as having born of the country in which
the foundling is found.
Issue 3: W/N Grace Poe satisfies the
10-year residency requirement

Held:
Yes.
Grace
Poe
satisfied
the
requirements of animus manendi
coupled with animus revertendi in
acquiring a new domicile.
Grace Poes domicile had been timely
changed as of May 24, 2005, and not
on July 18, 2006 when her application
under RA 9225 was approved by the
BI. COMELECs reliance on cases
which decree that an aliens stay in
the country cannot be counted unless
she acquires a permanent resident
visa
or
reacquires
her
Filipino
citizenship is without merit. Such
cases
are
different
from
the
circumstances in this case, in which
Grace Poe presented an overwhelming
evidence of her actual stay and intent
to abandon permanently her domicile
in the US. Coupled with her eventual
application to reacquire Philippine
citizenship and her familys actual
continuous stay in the Philippines over
the years, it is clear that when Grace
Poe returned on May 24, 2005, it was
for good.
Issue 4: W/N the Grace Poes
candidacy should be denied or
cancelled for committing material
misrepresentations in her COC
Held:
No. The COMELEC cannot cancel her
COC on the ground that she
misrepresented facts as to her
citizenship and residency because
such facts refer to grounds for
ineligibility in which the COMELEC has
no jurisdiction to decide upon. Only
when there is a prior authority finding
that a candidate is suffering from a
disqualification provided by law or the
Constitution that the COMELEC may
deny due course or cancel her
candidacy
on
ground
of
false
representations
regarding
her
qualifications.
In this case, by authority of the
Supreme Court Grace Poe is now
pronounced qualified as a candidate

for the presidency. Hence, there

cannot be any false representations in
her COC regarding her citizenship and
residency.