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MEMORANDUM FOR THE RESPONDENT
IN RE: PETITION FOR DISQUALIFICATION
OF PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE
RONALD ALLAN KELLEY POE.
SPA NO. 04-003
PAGE-16-Sec. 4. Delegation of Reception of Evidence.—
The Commission may designate any of this
officials who are members of the Philippine Bar to hear the case and
to receive evidence.
2.01. The papers which were submitted through
respondent’s “Submission” dated January 28, could not have
been submitted at the hearing in this case held on January 19,
because the hearing before the Senate Committee on Constitutional
Amendments, Revision of Codes and Laws took place only on January
21. Their relevance and vital importance cannot be gainsaid.
The whole case of petitioner is founded on
papers submitted by Director Ricardo Manapat which custom-made,
fabricated and falsified.
II. RESOLUTION OF PETITIONS BEFORE SUPREME
COURT SHOULD NOT BE AWAITED
3.00. The Honorable Chair of this Commission has
been some news reports as stating that the Commission might await
the Supreme Court’s resolution of petitions filed with the Supreme
Court seeking the disqualification of respondent from running for
President in the May 10 election before resolving petitioner’s
“Motion for Reconsideration” The following petitions appear to
have been filed with the Supreme Court:
(a) G.R. No. 161434 entitled, “Maria Jeannette
C.
Tecson and Felix B. Desiderio, Jr. vs. The
Commission on Elections, et al.”; and
(b) G.R. No. 161634 entitled, “Zoilo Antonio
Velez
vs. Ronald Allan Kelly Poe, a.k.a. Fernando Poe,
Jr.”
Rather than awaiting the Supreme Court’s
resolution of the abovementioned petitions, this Honorable
Commission should resolve petitioner’s “Motion for
Reconsideration” with dispatch.
3.01. Both of the above petitions invoke the
jurisdiction of the Supreme Court to rule upon the qualifications of
respondent to run for President of the Philippines in the May 10
election purportedly pursuant Article VII of Section 4, paragraph 7,
of the Constitution which reads, as follows:
The Supreme Court, sitting en banc, shall be the
sole judge of all contests relating to the election, returns, and
qualifications of the President or Vice-President, and may
promulgate its rules for this purpose.
3.02. Upon the other hand, the petition in the
instant case is filed under Section 78 of the Omnibus Election Code,
which gives the Commission the power to “deny due course or to
cancel certificate of candidacy,” which power is limited, as. the
Commission’s (First Division) Resolution of January 23 stated,
“exclusively on the ground that any material representation
contained therein as required under Section 74 hereof is false”
(at p. 2). Clearly, therefore, the petitions before the Supreme
Court are different from the petition in the instant case.
3.03.By Resolution dated January 27, 2004,
the Supreme Court, ordered in G.R. No. 161434, as follows:
The Court Resolved to GRANT the Motion to Admit
Supplemental Petition dated January 26, 2004 filed by counsel for
petitioners.
Acting on the Special Civil Action for
Certiorari and Prohibition with Application for Writ of Preliminary
Injunction and/or Temporary Restraining Order, as well as the
aforesaid Supplemental petition, the Court Resolved, without giving
due course to the petition, to require the respondents to COMMENT
thereon within ten [10] days from notice hereof.”
A copy of the above Resolution appears to have
been sent registered mail to respondent at 23 Lincoln Street,
Greenhills, San Juan, Metro Manila.
3.04.The Supreme Court, it will be noted, has
not given due course to the petition and only required “the
respondent to comment thereon within ten [10] days from notice
hereof,” No hearing on the petition has been scheduled.
3.05.While the petition in the aforementioned
case, applied for the issuance of a “Writ of Preliminary
Injunction and/ or Temporary Restraining Order” to enjoin this
Honorable Commission from resolving the present ease, the Supreme
Court has not ordered the issuance of a “Writ of Preliminary
Injunction and/or Temporary Restraining Order”. The filing of the
petition in G.R, No. 161434 and the Order of the Supreme Court of
January 27, requiring the respondent to comment may not interrupt
the proceedings in the instant case. Section 7, Rule 65, of the
Revised Rules of Court provides, as follows:
SEC. 7. Expediting proceedings; injunctive
relief.— The court in which the petition is filed may issue orders
expediting the proceedings, and it may also grant a temporary
restraining order or a writ of preliminary injunction for the
preservation of the rights of the parties pending such proceedings.
The petition shall not interrupt the course of (he principal case
unless a temporary restraining order or a writ of preliminary
injunction has been issued against the public respondent from
further proceeding in the case.*
IV. CONTINUING PENDENCY OF PETITION GOES TO
THE FOUNDATION OF DEMOCRACY
4.00.The democratic character of our Republic is
founded on the mandate of the Constitution that the President
“shall be elected by direct vote of the people...” and the
“person having the highest number of votes shall be proclaimed
elected (Section 4, Article VII, Constitution). He shall not be
chosen by the Commission on Elections. The Commission shall instead
assure that the people are able to make their choice, and make their
choice fully and freely.
4.01. No political “savvy” is required to
appreciate that the filing of the petition in the instant case—no
matter how frivolous, and even, as it now appears, that the petition
is based on custom-made, fabricated and falsified documents—has
planted a seed of doubt in the mind of voters, in political leaders,
even to those who do not vote but have a slake, on whether
respondent is a “natural-born citizen.”
4.02. The perception of political uncertainty or
apprehension in the country, is fueled by the fact that even as the
campaign period is about to start, the respondent who is the leading
candidate may be stricken from the list of candidates thereby
depriving the right of voters to choose him to be the next
President. This cuts to the very foundation of democracy. The longer
the petition stands, this uncertainty aggravates and the right of
the people, more especially those who support the respondent’s
candidacy, to freely and fully choose the next President is
undermined.
4.03.Dismissal of the petition in the instant
case does not
foreclose denial to respondent of the position
of President if he is, as petitioner contends, not a natural-born
citizen. Let it be remembered that those who believe respondent is
not qualified to be President, for whatever reason, may freely not
vote for him but for any of the other candidates (who, if the
respondent is stricken from the list of candidates become the ONLY
candidates), or if respondent wins, but does not meet the
qualifications for President prescribed by the Constitution, may
“contest” his election before the Supreme Court AFTER the
elections.
4.04. The filing of the instant petition,
accompanied by
the relentless publicity it has been given, has
however impaired the conduct of a fair and credible election. But a
prompt resolution of petitioner’s “Motion for
Reconsideration,” in accord with the Commission’s responsibility
of assuring a “free, orderly, peaceful,
and credible elections” will stop the assault
on the people’s right to vote for, and elect, the President of
their choice and the unfair enhancement of the candidacy of the
other candidates.
4.05. Respondent prays and pleads that the
demise of the petition be pronounced speedily—and emphatically.
Manapat forte: Digging up dirt
Director Ricardo Manapat of the National
Archives is no stranger to controversy.
He has been linked to efforts to dig up dirt
against the enemies of the Ramos administration.
It was former President Ramos who appointed
Manapat to head the National Archives. He lost the position when
Joseph Estrada became president, but was reappointed by President
Arroyo in 2003.
Manapat was the publisher and editor in chief of
Smart Files, a magazine that printed damaging articles against known
political opponents of Ramos. Among the targets of Smart Files were
then-senator Miriam Santiago and then-local government secretary
Alfredo Lim.
The magazine was widely believed to be financed
by the Ramos administration.
Smart Files also vilified Ernesto Maceda
former Senate president Francisco Chavez, former solicitor
general former trade and industry secretary Jose Concepcion
Jr., the businessmen Enrique Zobel, Lucio Tan, Sy Pio Lato and the
Catholic group Opus Dei.
Manapat was behind the publication of a similar
magazine Crocodile Files.
Things heated up for Manapat when Sergio T.
Eulogio, deputy administrator for corporate services of the
Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA), accused Virgilio David, former
PCA administrator, of diverting its funds and property to finance a
smear campaign against Ramos critics, notably Santiago and Lim.
In his complaint Eulogio said the Smart Files
staff, led by Manapat, were given free office space, supplies,
facilities and equipment by the PCA. An official car was also
provided to Manapat, Eulogio alleged.
Eulogio charged that the salaries paid to the
magazine staff amounted to P2.2 million.
Manapat was charged with graft before the
Ombudsman for misuse of the public funds.
Another case was filed against Manapat, this
time arising from Commission on Audit disallowances amounting to
P52,128,438.32 spent in the restoration of a building in Intramuros
under his care.
Manapat also wrote a book, Some Are Smarter Than
Others: The History of Marcos’s Crony Capitalism.
He was again in the glare of controversy after
he allegedly helped Victorino Fornier, a lawyer, petitioner in the
disqualification of Fernando Poe Jr., research documents on the
opposition presidential candidate.
At the Comelec hearing Manapat admitted that he
himself dug up the papers requested by Fornier in his office even
during the Christmas holidays.
A former employee of the National Archives said,
in a television interview, that after Manapat quarreled with an
assistant director, he allegedly placed a dead rat on her chair.
A messenger, who has worked at the Archives for
almost 10 years, said Manapat was rash with his subordinates.
“He pressures us to do his bidding, and if
anyone refuses he gets fired,” the messenger said.
He said 19 employees were dismissed, while
others resigned, because “they couldn’t take the pressure.”
Fornier: ‘They are genuine’
Victorino Fornier, who raised the citizenship
issue against the opposition presidential candidate Fernando Poe
Jr., insisted at a hearing before the Commission on Elections that
the documents he submitted to support his claim were genuine.
Speaking through his lawyer, Andresito Fornier,
the petitioner said his main witness, Ricardo Manapat, director of
the National Archives (formerly known as the Records Management and
Archives Office) had found two relevant records on microfilm.
He was referring to the supposed birth
certificate of Poe’s father, Allan Fernando Poe, that shows he is
a Spanish and an alleged marriage certificate he contracted with a
Paulita Gomez.
Victorino Fornier said Fernando Poe Jr. cannot
claim he is a Filipino citizen, because his parents are both
foreigners. Allan Poe, Fornier pointed out, is Spanish and Bessie
Kelly an American citizen.
The Comelec’s First Division on Monday heard
the disqualification case filed by Fornier against Poe, the
presidential standard-bearer of the opposition Koalisyon ng
Nagkakaisang Pilipino.
The petitioners argued the respondent must prove
that Lorenzo Pou is the father of Allan Fernando Poe, because no
certificate would prove that Pou and Poe are the same.
Former solicitor general Estelito Mendoza, who
represented Poe, asserted that no record would prove that Lorenzo
Pou, Fernando Poe Jr.’s grandfather, arrived in the country, but
that the respondent can prove that he is a Filipino citizen, on the
basis of the titles of a number of real property he bought in San
Carlos, Pangasinan, and his death certificate.
But Fornier insisted: “No record will prove
that Pou filed a petition to change his name to Poe, so they cannot
claim that Lorenzo Pou is the father of Allan Fernando Poe.”
At the hearing called by the Comelec to hear the
disqualification case against Poe, the lawyers of both petitioner
and respondent, as expected, battled it out by presenting evidence
to prove their arguments.
Mendoza asked the Comelec’s First Division,
headed by Commissioner Rufino Javier, to deny the petition for
disqualification filed by Fornier questioning Poe’s citizenship.
He presented evidence, including the
certifications issued by Estrella Domingo, former officer in charge
of the archives division, the certification Poe’s grandfather
Lorenzo Pou that he lived in the Philippines, the marriage
certificate of Allan Poe Sr. and Bessy Kelly, Poe’s parents, and
the birth certificates of Poe’s five siblings.
Mendoza noted that had Domingo certified that
there was no record of the birth certificate of Allan Fernando Poe,
Poe’s father, from San Carlos, Pangasinan, and that the date of
marriage of the older Poe to a certain Paulita Gomez dated January
12, 2004, and January 13, 2004, respectively.
“The certification clearly dictates that it
was not on file or no information recorded [about] the birth
certificate and the marriage certificate,” Mendoza said.
Manapat said Domingo’s certification was
released because the requesting party was in a hurry to get a
certification.
“I was told that the requesting party asked
the division for a copy of the records and because it was urgent the
personnel decided to give the certification,” he added.
The petitioner’s witness also admitted that he
was appointed to the position as the head of the Archives Division
two months ago by President Arroyo to replace a certain Teresita
Ignacio.
Before that, he was the director of the National
Archives from 1996 to 1998 and was appointed to the same position in
2002.
Another witness for the respondent, Gloria
Pagdilao from the Manila Civil Registrar’s Office, presented a
book that contains the birth certificate of Fernando Poe Jr.
declaring that his parents are both Filipino citizens.
Mendoza also presented the birth certificates of
Poe’s siblings specifying that their parents are both Filipinos.
At the end of the hearing, the Comelec ordered
both parties to submit their memorandums within two days and then
the case would be submitted for resolution.
Manapat was one of the popular personalities in
the underground movement in the seventies and an author before he
was appointed record keeper in the Ramos administration.
Fornier vows to raise case to the High Court
THE Commission on Elections on January 23 threw
out a petition seeking to stop Fernando Poe Jr. from running for
president in the May 10 election.
Almost two weeks later, the Comelec upheld its
Jan. 23 ruling and junked the motion for reconsideration of
Victorino Fornier, who vowed to raise the case to the Supreme Court.
In a 12-page resolution, the First Division,
headed by Commissioner Rufino Javier, unanimously voted to reject
the petition of Fornier, saying the lawyer failed to prove there was
“material misrepresentation” in the certificate of candidacy of
the Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino standard-bearer to merit his
disqualification.
The Comelec also noted, “Instead of assailing
any recitation of fact in the certificate of candidacy, petitioner
attacks the veracity of the entries in respondent’s birth
certificate.”
“Considering that the evidence presented by
the petitioner is not substantial, we declare that the respondent
did not commit any material misrepresentation when he stated in his
certificate of candidacy that he is a natural-born Filipino
citizen,” the Comelec said.
In a press statement, Poe assured his supporters
that he is determined to continue with his mission to serve the
people.
“I have a Filipino father, so I am a Filipino.
I did not apply for naturalization, so I am a natural-born
citizen,” he said.
In the ruling, Commissioners Resurreccion
Borra, Rufino Javier and Luzviminda Tancangco said the marriage
contract between Allan Fernando Poe and Paulita Gomez Fornier
submitted as evidence states that Lorenzo Poe, the actor’s
grandfather, was a Spanish citizen, but that he had “ceased to be
a Spanish subject and become a Filipino citizen.”
“Petitioner should have presented proof
that Lorenzo Poe intended to preserve his allegiance to the Crown of
Spain by making a court of record, within a year from the date of
the exchange of ratifications of the peace treaty. Since there was
no such declaration, he should be held to have renounced it and to
have adopted the nationality of the territory in which he
resides,” the resolution read.
That being the case, Allan Fernando Poe would
acquire the citizenship of his father since the petitioner failed to
establish that Lorenzo Poe did not renounce his Spanish citizenship
as covered under the Treaty of Paris, the Comelec said.
However, the 1935 Constitution did not
categorically define the nature of one’s citizenship, only who
could be considered as a Filipino citizen.
--Darwin G. Amojelar
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