POE-LLAMANZARES vs COMELEC G.R. No. 221697, G.R. No. 221698-700

 MARY GRACE NATIVIDAD S. POE-LLAMANZARES, Petitioners,

vs.

COMELEC AND ESTRELLA C. ELAMPARO, Respondents.

G.R. No. 221697      March 8, 2016

 

x – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – x

MARY GRACE NATIVIDAD S. POE-LLAMANZARES, Petitioners,

vs.

COMELEC, FRANCISCO S. TATAD, ANTONIO P. CONTRERAS AND AMADO D. VALDEZ Respondents.

G.R. No. 221698-700

 

PEREZ, J.:

Facts:

Petitioner Mary Grace Natividad S. Poe-Llamanzares was found abandoned as a newborn infant in the Parish Church of Jaro, Iloilo on Sept. 3, 1968. After passing the parental care and custody over petitioner by Edgardo Militar to Emiliano Militar and his wife, she has been reported and registered as a foundling and issued a Foundling Certificate and Certificate of Live Birth, thus was given the name, Mary Grace Natividad Contreras Militar.

 

When the petitioner reached the age of five (5), celebrity spouses Ronal Allan Kelley (aka Fernando Poe, Jr) and Jesusa Sonora Poe (aka Susan Roces) filed a petition foe her adoption. The trial court granted their petition and ordered that her name be changed to Mary Grace Natividad Sonora Poe.

 

Petitioner registered as a voter in San Juan City at the age of 18 in 1986; in 1988, she applied and was issued Philippine Passport by the DFA; in 1993 and 1998, she renewed her passport.

 

She left for the United States (U.S.) in 1988 to continue her studies after enrolling and pursuing a degree in Development Studies at the University of the Philippines. She graduated in 1991 from Boston College where she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Studies.

 

She married Teodoro Misael Daniel V. Llamanzares, a citizen of both the Philippines and the U.S., in San Juan City and decided to flew back to the U.S. after their wedding. She gave birth to her eldest child while in the U.S.; and her two daughters in the Philippines.

 

She became a naturalized American citizen in 2001. She came back to the Philippines to support her father’s candidacy for president in the May 2004 elections and gave birth to her youngest daughter. They then returned to the U.S. in 2004 but after few months, she rushed back to the Philippines to attend to her ailing father. After her father’s death, the petitioner and her husband decided to move and reside permanently in the Philippines in 2005 and immediately secured a TIN, then her children followed suit; acquired property where she and her children resided.

 

In 2006, She took her Oath of Allegiance to the Republic of the Philippines pursuant to RA No. 9225 or the Citizenship retention and Re-acquisition Act of 2003; she filed a sworn petition to reacquire Philippine citizenship together with petitions for derivative citizenship on behalf of her three children which was granted. She registered as a voter; secured Philippine passport; appointed and took her oath as Chairperson of the MTRCB after executing an affidavit of Renunciation of American citizenship before the Vice Consul of the USA and was issued a Certificate of Loss of Nationality of the USA in 2011.

 

In 2012, she filed with the COMELEC her Certificate of Candidacy (COC) for Senator for the 2013 Elections wherein she answered “6 years and 6 months” to the question “Period of residence in the Philippines before May 13, 2013.” Petitioner obtained the highest number of votes and was proclaimed Senator on 16 May 2013.

 

On 15 October 2015, petitioner filed her COC for the Presidency for the May 2016 Elections. In her COC, the petitioner 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 ten (10) years and eleven (11) months counted from 24 May 2005. The petitioner attached to her COC an “Affidavit Affirming Renunciation of U.S.A. Citizenship” subscribed and sworn to before a notary public in Quezon City on 14 October 2015.

 

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 was in want of citizenship and residence requirements, and that she committed material misrepresentations in her COC.

 

On certiorari, the Supreme Court 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 natural-born citizenship issue.

 

Issue:

Whether or not Mary Grace Natividad S. Poe-Llamanzares is a natural-born Filipino citizen.

 

Held:

Yes. Mary Grace Natividad S. Poe-Llamanzares may be considered a natural-born Filipino.

It ruled that a foundling is a natural-born citizen of the Philippines as there is no restrictive language which would definitely exclude foundlings as they are already impliedly so recognized.

 

There are also no provisions in the Constitution with intent or language permitting discrimination against foundlings as the three Constitutions guarantee the basic right to equal protection of the laws.

 

Foundlings are citizens under international law as this is supported by some treaties, adhering to the customary rule to presume foundlings as having born of the country in which the foundling is found.