PRIVATE INTERNATIONAL LAW 1

Nationality

Poe-Llamanzares v. COMELEC
March 8, 2016 | J. Perez

Petitioner(s): Mary Grace Natividad S. Poe-Llamanzares

Respondent(s): Commission on Elections and Estrella C. Elamparo

Doctrine: Under international law, foundlings are considered as citizens of the countries they are found
in.

CASE SUMMARY
Trigger Word(s): Grace Poe
FACTS: Grace Poe challenges the COMELEC orders denying her certificate on the ground that she is not
a natural-born Filipino citizen. Poe is a foundling left in a church outside Iloilo city and was eventually
adopted by Fernando Poe Jr and Susan Roces. She became a naturalized American citizen in 201, but
returned to the PH in 2005 and eventually reacquired her Philippine citizenship in 2006. 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.

HELD: The Court granted the petition. Under international law, foundlings are considered as citizens of
the countries they are found in. Art. 15 of the UDHR, Art. 7 of the UNCRC, and Art. 24 of the ICCPR all
obligate the Philippines to grant nationality from birth and ensure that no child is stateless. Art. 14 of the
1930 Hague Convention on Certain Questions Relating to the Conflict of Nationality Laws provides that a
foundling is presumed to have nationality of the country of birth. Art. 2 of the 1961 United Nations
Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness provide that the foundling found in the territory of the
Contracting State shall be considered as having been within the territory of parents possessing the
nationality of that State. Moreover, the fact that Poe was repatriated in July 2006 means that she
reacquired her original nationality, that is, her natural-born citizenship. Congress evidently saw it to
decree that natural-born citizenship may be reacquired even if it had once been lost.

FACTS1
• In Sept 1968, Mary Grace S. Natividad Poe-Llamanzares was found abandoned as a newborn infant in
the Parish Church of Jaro, Iloilo. 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 she was 5 years old, spouses Ronald Allan Kelley (aka Fernando Poe, Jr) and
Jesusa Sonora Poe (aka Susan Roces) filed a petition for her adoption. The trial court granted their
petition and ordered that her name be changed to Mary Grace Natividad Sonora Poe.
• In 1986, she registered as a voter in San Juan City at the age of 18; in 1988, she applied and was
issued Philippine Passport by the DFA; in 1993 and 1998, she renewed her passport. In 1988, she left for
the U.S. 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 fly 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, but 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. but after a few months, she rushed back to the Philippines to attend to her ailing
father. 

1
Taken heavily from the Consti 1 digest

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Nationality

• After her father’s death in 2005, the petitioner and her husband decided to move and reside
permanently in the Philippines 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. On July 18, 2006, the BI granted her petition declaring that she had reacquired her Filipino
citizenship under RA 9225.
• In 2011, 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.
• On 15 October 2015, Poe filed her COC for the Presidency for the May 2016 Elections. In her COC, the
she 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. She
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 is in want of citizenship and residence requirements, and that she committed
material misrepresentations in her COC.
 Elamparo, one of the petitioners against Poe, pointed out that petitioner was bound by the sworn
declaration she made in her 2012 COC for Senator wherein she indicated that she had resided in
the country for only 6 years and 6 months as of May 2013 Elections

ISSUES + HELD
W/N Poe is a natural-born Filipino citizen — YES
• There is more than sufficient evidence to show that Poe has Filipino parents and is a natural-born
Filipino. Her admission that she was a foundling did not exclude that her parents were Filipinos. Citing
statistics, it was shown that there is a high probability that her parents were Filipinos since the statistical
probability that any child born in the Philippines for the years of 1965 to 1975 is 99.83%.
• Other circumstantial evidence showing that her parents are Filipinos include:
1. The fact that was abandoned at a Roman Catholic Church in Iloilo
2. She has typical Filipino features
3. Population of Iloilo is overwhelmingly Filipino
• To rule otherwise would be contrary to common sense.
• The Court also held that foundlings are as a class, natural-born citizens. There is nowhere in the
language of the 1935 Constitution which shows that foundlings are excluded from being natural-born
citizens. The deliberations of the 1934 Constitutional Constitution show that the framers intended
foundlings to be covered by the enumeration. One of the framers stated that “by international law, the
principle that children or people born in a country of unknown parents are citizens in this nation is
recognized, and it is not necessary to include a provision on the subject exhaustively.” The Court
explained that there is no intent or language in the Constitution which would permit discrimination against
foundlings.
• Domestic laws on adoption also support this ruling. RA No. 8403 and RA No. 8552 both expressly refer
to Filipino children and include foundlings as among Filipino children who may be adopted.
• Furthermore, under international law, foundlings are considered as citizens of the countries they are
found in. Art. 15 of the UDHR, Art. 7 of the UNCRC, and Art. 24 of the ICCPR all obligate the Philippines
to grant nationality from birth and ensure that no child is stateless. Two other instruments provide this
principle, and while the Philippines has not adopted them, they are considered generally accepted
principles of international law:
 Art. 14 of the 1930 Hague Convention on Certain Questions Relating to the Conflict of Nationality
Laws provides that a foundling is presumed to have nationality of the country of birth.
 Art. 2 of the 1961 United Nations Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness provide that the
foundling found in the territory of the Contracting State shall be considered as having been within
the territory of parents possessing the nationality of that State.

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• Moreover, the fact that Poe was repatriated in July 2006 means that she reacquired her original
nationality, that is, her natural-born citizenship. Congress evidently saw it to decree that natural-born
citizenship may be reacquired even if it had once been lost.

W/N Poe met the 10-year residency requirement — YES

• Poe showed evidence that she and her family abandoned their US domicile and relocated to the
Philippines for good on May 2005:
1. Her former US passport
2. Email correspondences with a company to arrange for shipmetn of their household items
3. Email with Philippine Bureau of Animal Industry inquiring how to ship their dogs to the PH
4. School records of her children showing enrollment in PH schools starting June 2005
5. Tax identification card for Poe issued July 2005
6. Sale of her US Home in 2005
7. Affidavits from Jesusa Sonora Poe and Poe’s husband confirming that they returned to PH in
2005.
• In contrast with the COMELEC’s cited cases, there is overwhelming evidence to show that Poe decided
to permanently abandon her US residence and permanently relocate to the Philippines. It was clear that,
with her eventual application to reacquire Philippine citizenship, Poe returned to the PH for good on May
24, 2005.
• It is the fact of residence, not the statement of the person, that determines residence for purposes of
compliance with the constitutional requirement of residency for election as President.

RULING: Petitioner Mary Grace Natividad Sonora Poe-Llamanzares is DECLARED QUALIFIED to be a

candidate for President in the National and Local Elections of 9 May 2016.

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March 21, 2021