Carpio counters Sereno on Filipino citizenship of foundlings

Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio on Tuesday rebutted Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno as he implied that the cases cited last week by the top magistrate supposedly in favor of Senator Grace Poe may not be applicable to the lawmaker's cases after all.

During the third round of oral arguments last week, Sereno cited two SC rulings - 1976's Duncan v. CFI Rizal and 1963's Ellis vs. Republic of the Philippines - to stress that the tribunal had long settled that children with unknown parents are presumed to be natural-born Filipinos.

The SC is currently hearing petitions from Poe seeking to reverse the Commission on Elections' cancellation of her certificate of candidacy for the 2016 presidential polls on grounds of her citizenship and residency.

On the fourth round of oral debates on Tuesday, Carpio - during interpellation of Comelec Commissioner Arthur Lim - referred back to the two cases cited by Sereno the week before.

Ellis case

“Did the fallo or dispositive portion [of the Ellis decision] mention [or] directly or indirectly rule that foundlings found in the Philippines are presumed to be natural-born,” Carpio asked the Comelec official.

Lim responded: “No, it did not because that was not the issue. The issue was whether resident aliens can adopt.”

The Ellis case involved Baby Rose, who was abandoned at a hospital with an unknown mother. A lower court later granted a couple's request to adopt her.

Carpio asked Lim if the issue on foundlings was even discussed in the Ellis case, to which the latter answered in the negative.

“It is not in the dispositive portion. It is not an issue. It was not even discussed,” Carpio echoed Lim.

Lim even pointed out that the word “foundling” was not mentioned anywhere in the 1963 SC ruling.

"And the child here [in the Ellis case] was not even a foundling,” Carpio added to Lim’s statement.

Duncan case

From the Ellis case, Carpio moved on to the Duncan case and made the same line of questioning.

“Did the fallo or dispositive portion of [the Ellis case] rule that foundlings are presumed natural-born?,” Carpio asked Lim once more.

Lim, once again, answered in the negative, saying the Duncan case centered on adoption and not on the issue of foundlings.

The Duncan case involved a three-year-old girl who was given by a lawyer to a couple for adoption. The identity of the mother was known only to the lawyer, who promised not to disclose anything about her.

“This was an adoption case. So the dispositive portion did not rule [on foundlings]?,” Carpio asked.

Lim replied: “It was not even an issue. It was not even discussed, your honor.

"The word ‘foundling' was not even mentioned by Justice Esguerra,” said Lim, referring to the magistrate who wrote the decision.

Carpio emphasized that once again the child in the Duncan case was not a foundling.

“The parent was known. And the child was entrusted to Atty. Corazon Velasquez,” added Lim.

Carpio was among the three SC justices and members of the Senate Electoral Tribunal that voted in the minority and ruled that Poe was not a natural-born Filipino.

Tecson case

Carpio's interpellation, however, didn't touch the Tecson case involving the citizenship case of Poe's late father, Fernando Poe Jr.

Sereno last week invoked Tecson vs. Comelec, which decided that Poe's father Fernando Poe Jr. was a natural-born citizen and could run for the presidency.

She noted that the Court presumed that Fernando Poe Jr.'s grandfather Lorenzo Poe was natural-born, despite the fact that the only proof of this was his death certificate in 1984.

"In the absence of any evidence to the contrary, it should be sound to conclude, or at least to presume, that the place of residence of a person at the time of his death was also his residence before death," Sereno quoted from the ruling.

She added: "The dearth of evidence here in Tecson did not prevent the Court from concluding the natural-born status of three generations of Poe males."

Foundling

Poe is a foundling found in Iloilo in 1968 and later adopted by celebrity couple Poe and Susan Roces.

Grace Poe migrated to the US to pursue college, have a family, and eventually become a naturalized US citizen.

In 2006, she obtained dual citizenship but renounced her US citizenship in 2010 right before she accepted an appointment as chair of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board. She later won as senator in 2013. -NB, GMA News