G.R. No. 161434 – 468 Phil. 421 – Political Law – Constitutional Law – General Principles – People; Citizenship – Natural-Born Filipinos
The Executive Department – Qualifications of the President – Citizenship Requirement
This case was consolidated with G.R. No. 161634 (Zoilo Velez vs Ronald Allan Kelley Poe) and G.R. No. 161824 (Victorino Fornier vs COMELEC).
The petitioners in G.R. No. 161434 and G.R. No. 161634 invoked the Supreme Court’s power to be the sole judge of all contests relating to the election, returns, and qualifications of the President or Vice-President. For this reason, the petitions were denied for being premature.
In G.R. No. 161824, Fornier was alleging grave abuse of discretion on the part of COMELEC when it dismissed his petition to cancel the certificate of candidacy for president of Ronald Allan Kelley Poe, more popularly known as Fernando Poe, Jr. (FPJ), in the 2004 presidential elections.
Velez alleged that FPJ committed misrepresentation in hic COC when he claimed that he is a natural-born Filipino.
It was alleged that FPJ was the grandson of Lorenzo Pou whose citizenship is unknown; that FPJ’s father was Allan Poe who was born in 1915 and his birth certificate indicated that his parents were Spanish; that FPJ was born in 1939; that FPJ’s mother (Bessie Kelley) was an American citizen; that Allan and Bessie’s marriage was void for being bigamous (Allan was married to Paulita Gomez in 1936 and while the marriage was subsisting he married Bessie in 1940); that since FPJ’s parent’s marriage was void, he followed the citizenship of Bessie.
ISSUE: Whether or not there is sufficient evidence to prove that FPJ is not a Filipino.
HELD: No. On the contrary, there is sufficient evidence to prove FPJ is a natural-born Filipino.
The term “natural-born citizens,” is defined to include “those who are citizens of the Philippines from birth without having to perform any act to acquire or perfect their Philippine citizenship.”
In 1902, the Philippine Organic Act was passed and there it was declared that inhabitants of the Philippines who were Spanish subjects are deemed citizens of the Philippines. Children born from them thereafter shall also be citizens of the Philippines. Lorenzo, who was an inhabitant of the Philippines then, was thus deemed a Philippine citizen since there are no evidence to the contrary.
Thus, Allan Poe, who was born in 1915, is a Philippine citizen regardless of what is indicated in his birth certificate.
Anent the argument that FPJ follows the citizenship of her American mother because her marriage to Allan Poe was bigamous (making FPJ illegitimate), the authorities cited by petitioners to the effect that illegitimate children follows the citizenship of their mothers are merely obiter dicta. Those previous decisions which had that tenor did so for the benefit the child; those cases involved children born to Filipino mothers but with alien fathers. It was to ensure a Filipino nationality for the illegitimate child of an alien father in line with the assumption that the mother had custody, would exercise parental authority and had the duty to support her illegitimate child. It was to help the child, not to prejudice or discriminate against him.
In this case, FPJ was born when the 1935 Constitution was in effect and Sec. 1 (2), Art. III thereof is clear in stating that “Those whose fathers are citizens of the Philippines” are Philippine citizens.
