Valdez asks SC to uphold cancellation of Poe’s COC for 2016 presidential polls

Senator Grace Poe (Photo from Poe’s official Facebook page)

MANILA—One of the petitioners in the cancellation of the certificate of candidacy (COC) for president in the May 9, 2016 elections of Senator Grace Poe-Llamanzares on Monday expressed his apprehension over the effect in the country of a national leader having a “dual allegiance.”

This was the argument raised by former University of the East (UE) College of Law Dean Amado Valdez in the comment he filed on Monday before the Supreme Court (SC) against the petition of Poe questioning the decision of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) cancelling her COC for president in the May 9, 2016 elections.

Valdez cited the statement of then Senator Blas F. Ople in the 1986 Constitutional Commission in connection with his apprehension over the “dual allegiance” which is a threat to national interest.

He said that if there will be no strict implementation of Republic Act No. 9225, or the “Dual Citizenship Law”, it will not be a “far-fetched” scenario that a citizen can run in the elections, who had “dual allegiance” once in a foreign country which claims the Philippine territory or the same Filipino citizen and citizen of another country, who is pursuing a “fundamental or extremist ideology.”

Because of this, Valdez asked the SC to affirm the cancellation of COC for president of Poe.

Valdez further argued that the Comelec en banc had committed “no grave abuse of discretion” when it declared that Poe committed “material misrepresentation” when she had stated in her COC that she is a natural-born Filipino and complied with the 10-year residency requirement to run for president in the May 9, 2016 elections. (PNA)