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A Case Digest

About Grace Poe and her citizenship

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Marie Tanilon
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69 views

A Case Digest

About Grace Poe and her citizenship

Uploaded by

Marie Tanilon
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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NAME: Marie Gerardine M.

Tanilon

GRADE, STRAND & SECTION: 12 HUMSS-B

CASE TITLE: MARY GRACE NATIVIDAD S. POE-LLAMANZARES vs. COMELEC AND


ESTRELLA C. ELAMPARO, G.R. No. 221697, March 8, 2016

FACTS OF THE CASE:

Grace Poe announced in her Certificate of Candidacy for President in the May 2016
elections that she is a natural-born citizen of the Philippines and that her residence up to the day
before May 9, 2016 will be 10 years and 11 months counted from May 24, 2005.

Grace Poe was born in 1968, was discovered as a newborn child in Jaro, Iloilo, and was
formally adopted in 1974 by RONALD ALLAN KELLY POE (FPJ) and JESUS SONORA POE
(SUSAN ROCES). She immigrated to the United States in 1991, after her marriage to Theodore
Llamanzares, who was living in the country at the time. Grace Poe was later naturalized as an
American citizen in 2001.

Due to his father's declining medical state, he returned to the Philippines in December
2004, and he died on February 3, 2005. She then left her job in the United States to be with her
bereaved mother before returning to the Philippines permanently on MAY 24, 2005.

The BI granted her petition on JULY 18, 2006, announcing that she had reacquired her
Filipino citizenship under RA 9225. She became a registered citizen and got a new Philippine
passport.

She renounced her American citizenship in 2010, prior to being named Chairperson of the
MTRCB, to meet the RA 9225 conditions for acquiring Filipino citizenship. She stopped using
her American passport after that.

Petitions were filed with the COMELEC to refuse or postpone her nomination, claiming,
among other things, that she is not a natural born Filipino citizen since she was a FOUNDLING
and that her biological parents cannot be proven to be Filipinos. The Comelec en banc canceled
her nomination on the grounds that she did not meet the citizenship and residency requirements,
as well as that she misrepresented herself in her COC.
On CERTIORARI, the SUPREME COURT overturned the decision and ruled 9-6 that
POE is fit to run for President.

ISSUES:

(1) Whether or not Grace Poe- Llamanzares is a natural- born Filipino citizen

(2) Whether or not Poe satisfies the 10-year residency requirement.

RULING OF THE COURT:

YES. GRACE POE is considered a natural-born Filipino citizen. As a result, she fulfilled
the constitutional provision that only natural-born Filipinos be eligible to run for President.

(1) There is a high likelihood that Poe's parents are Filipinos, as shown by her physical
characteristics that are indicative of Filipinos, as well as the fact that she was discovered as an
infant in Jaro, Iloilo, a municipality where 99 percent of the inhabitants are Filipinos, giving a 99
percent possibility that Poe's biological parents are Filipinos. According to Rule 128, Section 4
of the Rules of Proof, said chance and circumstantial evidence was admissible.

(2) The Supreme Court ruled that FOUNDLINGS are natural born citizens as a class,
relying on the 1935 Constitutional Convention's proceedings, wherein, although its enumeration
is silent on foundlings, there is no discriminatory language either to definitively preclude
foundlings from being natural born citizens.

(3) Foundlings are immediately granted natural-born citizenship in the country where they
are found, as protected and supported by UN Convention Law.

In terms of residence, Grace Poe fulfilled the 10-year residency requirement by meeting the
conditions of ANIMUS MANENDI (intent to live permanently) combined with ANIMUS NON
REVERTENDI (intent not to return to the United States) in securing a new domicile in the
Philippines. Beginning on May 24, 2005, following her return to the Philippines, Grace Poe
provided overwhelming proof of her actual stay and intent to leave permanently her domicile in
the United States, as well as her subsequent application to reacquire Filipino citizenship under
RA 9225. As a result, the Supreme Court approved her candidacy for President.

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