Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — While legal experts questioned Sen. Grace Poe’s eligibility to run for the presidency or the vice presidency in 2016 over residency matters, election lawyer Romulo Macalintal on Wednesday (June 3) made one thing clear: Poe’s previous certificate of candidacy (COC) is no basis for disqualification.
“While the COC shows that she answered ‘six years and six months’ to the question ‘Period of Residence in the Philippines before May 13, 2013,’ the said answer is not decisive in determining whether or not she could comply with the said residency requirement for President or VP,” said Macalintal.
Macalintal issued a statement on Wednesday after United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) Interim President Toby Tiangco’s on Tuesday (June 2) revealed that Poe cannot run for president or vice president (VP) because she has not and will not meet the 10-year residency requirement in time for the 2016 elections.
Curiously, Macalintal was reportedly included in the UNA’s shortlist of senatorial candidates for the 2016 elections.
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Tiangco’s claims were based on Poe’s 2013 COC, which supposedly stated that the latter’s period of residence in the country before May 13, 2013 only totaled to six years and six months.
While Poe hasn’t declared plans of running for either president or VP, she defended herself by saying that she has met the residency requirement and has even gone past the 10-year mark.
“I’m not a lawyer, but I am truthful. And if we do consider the time I’ve spent living here in the Philippines, I dare say that I’ve actually surpassed the (residency) requirement,” said Poe, who told press on Monday that she has been living in the Philippines since 2005.
Related: Poe: I am qualified to run in 2016
While Macalintal cited that deeming Poe disqualified would be “too premature” and that the statement made in her COC was “vague,” he also turned the issue into a simple matter of math.
“Hence, if Poe was a resident of the Philippines for ‘six years and six months’ in October 2012, then the additional period from October 2012 till the May 2016 elections which is three years and seven months, will give her a total of 10 years and one month residence in the Philippines.”
Poe earlier mentioned that she filed her previous COC in 2012.
Experts debate on residency matter
Atty. Sixto Brillantes, former Comission on Elections (Comelec) chair, also came to Poe’s defense, saying that statements made in the COC don’t serve as proof of meeting the constitution’s residency requirement.
“It is the fact of residence, not a statement in a certificate of candidacy which ought to be decisive in determining whether or not an individual has satisfied the constitution’s residency qualification requirement,” Brillantes said.
Related: Legal experts weigh in on Poe’s residency issue
Vicente Hoyas, President of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, on the other hand, supported Tiangco’s claims. He said that Poe is not qualified to run for the two highest positions in the country next year because she still has to prove that she complied with the requirements to fully renounce her U.S. citizenship.
“Definitely, that is a big issue because she is not qualified to run as President or Vice President under our laws. I think she must be honest enough to tell the people that ‘I am not qualified because these are the facts and circumstances,'” Hoyas said.
Amado Valdez, Dean of the University of the East’s law program, agreed with Hoyas, but he also offered a quick fix: “She could correct it (the information in the COC). (O)nce other facts are presented in the open, we have to make an informed judgment whether there is compliance with the requirement.”
Background check
Poe left the country in the 1990s to study abroad and ended up staying in the U.S. for 13 years.
While she eventually acquired a U.S. citizenship, Brillantes said that Poe can still be considered a legal resident of the Philippines.
But when asked if the questioning of her eligibility encouraged her to run for president or VP in 2016, Poe boldly answered: “Ito na lang po ang masasabi ko, kung ang mga ganyang klaseng tao ang iuupo natin, sa tingin ko ay paurong ang magiging takbo ng ating bayan.”
[Translation: “All I can say is: ‘If those are the people that we’re going to vote into office, then I think the way things are run in our country will be backwards.”]
