Rizalito David not giving up on fight vs Poe

Urges SC to set date for oral arguments

MANILA - The camp of disqualified senatorial aspirant Rizalito David urged the Supreme Court (SC) on Friday to immediately set a date for the conduct of oral arguments on his petition against Senator and presidential candidate Grace Poe.

David has a pending case with the high court that questions the Senate Electoral Tribunal's (SET) ruling upholding Poe's natural-born citizen status when she ran for senator in 2013.

The high court originally set oral arguments on David's petition last January 19 but the hearing did not push through and was overtaken by oral arguments on a separate similar case involving Poe's qualifications to run for president in the upcoming May 9, 2016 polls. The high court eventually upheld Poe's presidential bid.

"In the interest of justice - especially since more than three months had already elapsed from such time (January 19 schedule) - and given the utmost importance of the case, it behooves the Honorable Court to schedule the said oral arguments," David's urgent motion read.

In its decision in favor of Poe, the SET ruled that the 1935 Constitution's silence on the status of foundlings "cannot simply be interpreted as indicative of an intent to intrench a disadvantaged class in their tragedy."

"[T]he disadvantage suffered by foundlings is precisely their inability to establish Filipino filiation through the normal route of producing an ordinary birth certificate... [t]he honorable court need not convert this inability into a legal disability," the comment read.

The SET said there is a preponderance of evidence in Poe's favor, noting her physical features (5 ft. 2 inches tall, has brown eyes, has dark brown/black hair, has a low nasal bridge, and oval-shaped face). The SET argued that David was unable to present contrary evidence.

The SET also stressed that it did not commit grave abuse of discretion in ruling that Poe validly reacquired her natural-born citizenship under Republic Act (RA) No. 9225, also known as the Citizenship and Retention and Reacquisition Act of 2003, on October 18, 2001 based on the following "undisputed facts," (1) execution of an Oath of Allegiance to the Republic of the Philippines on July 7, 2006; (2) filing of a petition for reacquisition of Philippine citizenship with the Bureau of Immigration (BI) on July 10, 2006; and (3) in an order dated July 18, 2006 the (BI) granted her petition.