SENATE ELECTORAL TRIBUNAL

DAVID v. POE-LAMANZANES

ISSUE: Whether Grace Poe is eligible to sit as a Senator of the Republic.

ARGUMENTS OF THE PETITIONER: Poe is not qualified to be a member of the Senate on

account of her not being a natural-born citizen.
1. Poe does not fall under any of the classes of natural-born citizens enumerated in Sec. 1, Art.
IV, 1987 Constitution
a. To be a natural-born citizen, one’s parents must be Filipino citizens. Poe cannot claim
natural-born status as her parents are not known and cannot be presumed as Filipino
citizens.
2. The provisions of the 1930 Hague Convention on Certain Questions Relating to the Conflict
of Nationality Laws and the 1961 UN Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness are not
applicable because the Philippines has yet to accede to both Conventions.
3. Poe’s adoption did not confer upon her the status of natural-born citizen. The effect of the
adoption is to confer unto her legitimate status.

ARGUMENTS OF THE RESPONDENT: Poe asserts that she is a natural-born citizen and is
eligible to sit as a Senator
1. As early as the 1935 Constitution, it was always the intention of the framers to consider
foundlings found in the Philippines as Filipino citizens.
2. Poe invokes Art. 7 of the UNCRC and Art. 24 of the ICCPR. Both treaties are ratified by the
Philippines.
a. These treaties create an obligation on the part of the Philippines to recognize a foundling
as its citizen from the time of the foundling’s birth.
b. Although neither the ICCPR nor the UNCRC was in force when she was born in 1968,
each may apply retroactively to the date of her birth. To rule otherwise would be to
discriminate against foundlings born before the ratification of these treaties.
3. Poe invokes Art. 15 of the UDHR which recognizes the right of everyone to a nationality.
4. Poe invokes Art. 14 of the 1930 Hague Convention on Conflict of Nationality Laws. The
presumption that a foundling is a citizen of the State in which she is found is a generally
accepted principle of international law.
5. Poe invokes Art. 2 of the UN Convention on Statelessness which expresses a rebuttable
presumption of descent from a citizen, consistent with jus sanguinis.
6. Finally, Poe argues that she validly reacquired her natural-born status pursuant to R.A. No.
9225.

RULING OF THE SET ON POE’S CITIZENSHIP:

1. From the deliberations of the 1934 Constitutional Convention on citizenship, it was

never the intention of the framers to exclude foundlings from natural-born citizenship
status.
 “Children or people born in a country of unknown parents are citizens of this nation” and
the only reason that there was no specific reference to foundlings in the 1935 provision
was that these cases “are few and far in between.”
  Evident intent was to adopt the concept found in the Spanish Code “wherein all children
of unknown parentage born in Spanish territory are considered Spaniards, because the
presumption is that a child of unknown parentage is the son of a Spaniard.”

2. Under Art. 14 of the Hague Convention of 1930 (on Conflict of Nationality Laws), a
foundling is presumed to have been born on the territory of the State in which it was
found until the contrary is proved.
 Although the Philippines is not a signatory to said convention, its provisions are binding
as they form part of the law of the land pursuant to the incorporation clause.
 Sr. Roxas in the 1934 Constitutional Convention remarked “By international law the
principle that children or people born in a country of unknown parents are citizens in this
nation is recognized…”
 By referring to this rule in international law (which was no other than Art. 14 of the
Hague Convention of 1930), what was effectively created in the Constitution itself,
was an exception to the general rule of natural-born citizenship based on blood
descent.

3. Hence, foundlings (children born in the Philippines with unknown parentage) were,
by birth, accorded natural-born citizenship by the Constitution.
 “natural-born citizens by legal fiction”
 The framers of the Constitution were sufficiently empowered to create a class of natural-
born citizens by legal fiction, as an exception to the jus sanguinis rule
 This is evident from Art. 1 (State to determine who are its nationals) and Art. 2
(questions on nationality to be determined by the law of that State) of the 1930 Hague
Convention

4. Poe validly reacquired her natural-born Filipino citizenship upon taking her Oath of
Allegiance to the Republic, as required under Section 3, R.A. No. 9225
 Before assuming her position as MTRCB Chairman, Poe executed an affidavit of
renunciation of foreign citizenship. This was sufficient to qualify her for her appointive
position, and later, her elective office as R.A. No. 9225 did not require that her Certificate
of Loss of Nationality filed before the U.S. Embassy be first approved in order that she
may qualify for office.
 Records of the Bureau of Immigration show that Poe still used her U.S. passport after
having taken her Oath of Allegiance but not after she has renounced her U.S. Citizenship.

5. Hence, the petition for quo warranto is DISMISSED.