Poe’s Citizenship Disqualification Up For SET

Iloilo City (PNA) -– The citizenship disqualification case of Senator Grace Poe is up for the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) to decide and if possible to decide immediately in order to settle the issue before the filing of certificate of candidacy by October 12-16, 2015.

In a radio interview here, Senate President Franklin M. Drilon admitted he had asked the SET to decide soon on the senator’s disqualification case to erase any cloud of doubt on her citizenship as Poe is aspiring to run for the Presidency in 2016..

The quo warranto petition is focused on doubts over Poe’s being a natural born Filipino and unavoidably, it also casts doubts on the validity of her candidacy in the upcoming presidential elections, Drilon said.

The lady senator admitted she was a foundling found inside the Jaro Cathedral in Jaro, Iloilo City. In 2001, she was naturalized as a citizen of the United States of America and in 2006, she filed with the Bureau of Immigration a sworn petition to re-acquire her Philippine citizenship.

In 2010, she executed before a notary public in Pasig an “Affidavit of Renunciation of Allegiance to the United States of America and Renunciation of American Citizenship”; that at no time after she executed the affidavit in 2010 did she ever use her U.S.A. passport.

In 2010, she assumed the position of chairperson of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board; and in 2011, she executed before the Vice Consul at the U.S.A. Embassy in Manila an Oath/Affirmation of Renunciation of Nationality of the United States. On October 2012, she filed her Certificate of Candidacy as senator. (PNA) CTB/AJP/LCPENDON/CBF