2022 Statelessness & Citizenship Review 4(2) cancel Poe’s certificate of candidacy and held that she was qualified to be a candidate for President in the 2016 national elections. Months after, in David v Senate Electoral Tribunal (‘David’),4 the Court, with a 9:3 vote, upheld the decision of the Senate Electoral Tribunal (‘SET’), holding that Poe was a naturalborn citizen qualified to hold office as a senator of the Republic. BACKGROUND Senator Poe was abandoned at the Parish Church of Jaro, the City of Iloilo, as an infant. Edgardo Militar found her outside the church and turned her over to his brother, Emiliano Militar, who then reported to the Office of the Local Civil Registrar that the infant was found on 6 September 1968. She was given the name Mary Grace Natividad Contreras Militar. Senator Poe was then adopted by spouses Ronald Allan Poe and Jesusa Sonora Poe (movie actors, Fernando Poe Jr and Susan Roces). The municipal trial court that heard the petition for adoption ordered a change in Senator Poe’s name to Mary Grace Natividad Sonora Poe.5 A new birth certificate was issued for Mary Grace Natividad Sonora Poe with her adopted parents named as her father and mother with her citizenship being labeled as ‘Filipino’.6 On 27 July 1991, Senator Poe married Teodoro Misael Daniel V Llamanzares, both an American and Filipino national since birth. On 29 July 1991, Senator Poe moved to the United States of America (‘the United States’) with her husband and was naturalised and granted American citizenship on 18 October 2001. To acquire American citizenship, Senator Poe took an oath of allegiance to the United States which contained the phrase: 7 I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen … Senator Poe returned to the Philippines when her father was hospitalised and slipped into a coma. After he passed away, Senator Poe stayed in the Philippines to attend her father’s funeral and settle his estate. After Senator Poe consulted with her children, they all agreed to return to the Philippines to support Poe’s mother. On 7 July 2006, Senator Poe took the Oath of Allegiance to the Republic of the Philippines. Thereafter, she filed a Petition Under Oath to Re-Acquire/Retain Philippine Citizenship, which was granted. POE-LLAMANZARES V COMMISSION ON ELECTIONS When Grace Poe filed her certificate of candidacy for President on 15 October 2015, a petition was filed by a private citizen to have it cancelled on the ground that she did not satisfy the citizenship requirements of the Constitution. The 4 5 6 7 David v Senate Electoral Tribunal (Supreme Court of the Philippines, GR No 221548, 20 September 2016) 796 Phil 529 (‘David’). ibid 451. ‘Timeline: Grace Poe’s Citizenship, Residency’ Rappler (online, 4 September 2015) <https://www.rappler.com/nation/elections/104731-grace-poe-citizenship-residencytimeline-arguments>, archived at <https://perma.cc/Q5CW-HW78>. ‘The Oath of Allegiance’ US Citizenship and Immigration Services (Web Page, 16 September 2021) <https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/n-400-topic-exercises/The-OathOf-Allegiance.pdf>, archived at <https://perma.cc/23J2-23FR>. 310