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An American president of the
Philippines?
By Marco
Garrido
MANILA - Much is unclear; much is ironic.
It is unclear whether Fernando Poe Jr (FPJ), the
front-runner in the Philippine presidential race, is
even qualified to run. His citizenship at birth, one
lawyer contends, was actually American. If this is found
to be the case, Poe could be disqualified for not
meeting the constitutional requirement of the president
being "a natural-born Filipino".
This would be
ironic indeed. A revelation of US citizenship would
probably bolster FPJ's appeal among an electorate that,
by and large, considers tangible ties to the United
States an unqualified positive. The perennial
presidential candidate Ely Pamatong banks on this
allure, campaigning, as he does, on a platform of US
statehood for the Philippines.
Contested
citizenship
The true facts of Poe's citizenship -
as opposed to all the false facts that have been strewn
in the way of truth - remain unclear. Lawyer Victorino
Fornier claims that Poe was born out of wedlock, the son
of Spanish and US citizens. That his mother, Bessie
Kelly, was American is incontestable. That his father,
Allan Fernando Poe, remained Spanish is arguable. If, in
fact, Allan Poe elected to retain his Spanish
citizenship, Fernando Poe Jr would inherit this same
citizenship at birth (since the Philippines goes by
bloodline in determining nationality). The point at
issue, however, is whether Poe was born illegitimately,
in which case, according to normative jurisprudence, he
would assume his mother's citizenship.
As proof,
Fornier presented Allan Poe's marriage certificate with
a certain Paulita Gomez (in which both parties indicated
Spanish citizenship) and a bigamy case filed by Gomez
against him. Largely on the strength of Fornier's
evidence, Poe Jr was charged with two counts of
falsifying public documents and one count of perjury for
claiming to be a natural-born Filipino. The complainants
pointed out that Poe's birth certificate had been
executed on a typewriter model that had not yet been
invented in 1939, when the certificate was filed.
This is as far as Fornier gets. His case begins
unraveling with Ricardo Manapat, the National Archives
director whom he tapped for his evidence. Three National
Archives employees alleged that Manapat asked them
separately to cut and paste scanned microfilm files in
order to produce the documents undermining Poe's
candidacy. So if Poe's documents were typewritten,
Fornier's were computerized. Now it would appear that
both sides have false documents on their hands,
documents belied by their anachronism.
Here is where
it gets ironic. Fornier still appears to have a case,
although not based on his own documents but on Poe's. An
apparently authentic marriage contract submitted by Poe
dates his parents' marriage in 1940. Poe, however, was
born in 1939. This would mean, according to his own
documents, that he was born illegitimately, and thus, it
follows, would assume the US citizenship of his mother.
To avoid controversy, the Commission on
Elections has ruled on as little of the matter as it
could, sidestepping the issue of Poe's citizenship
altogether and deciding instead that Poe did not
"materially misrepresent" himself in filing his
candidacy. Hence he should not be disqualified. Now
resolving the explosive heart of the matter falls to the
Supreme Court.
Ironies
The facts of
the case provide for the least of its ironies. It is a
greater irony that Poe, a movie star by profession, can
run for president without any substantial qualifications
and yet face disqualification for failing to meet a
technical criterion.
It would surely be a
tantalizing irony if the man whose celluloid persona
defined a good part of the Filipino male's self-image
were to be outed as American. Would a veritable cultural
icon be found hollow? Such irony cannot help but beg the
question of identity: What, if not citizenship, makes
one Filipino? Whatever it is, FPJ surely has it to the
hilt, but as a presidential candidate, he may still be
found wanting.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
(GMA) herself has weighed in on the issue - to deflect,
perhaps, accusations of conspiring with Fornier -
pronouncing FPJ a Filipino "in heart and spirit". One
wonders whether she has overstated the obvious in order
to imply its obverse: that FPJ may not be Filipino in
law and letter, and hence not Filipino enough to be
president of the republic. (Even though he would almost
certainly make a more nationalist president than GMA,
whose slavishness to US policy makes her the more
American of the two as far as "heart and spirit" goes.)
Obscurities
Now we return to what is
unclear - or what is being obscured: Who is really
behind all this? The sum of these ironies shows a
discrepancy between law and reality, or at least the
reality of public opinion. Fornier is using the law to
spite public opinion - he claims he is non-partisan and
is doing this simply to uphold the sanctity of the
letter of the law - and now public opinion is turning
against him. It is hard to believe that he is doing this
out of a sense of personal ethics and fastidiousness. It
is easy to suspect that he serves other masters, that,
in the words of deposed president Joseph Estrada, he is
the lackey in an Arroyo administration "hatchet job".
But if GMA is behind this, then - irony of
ironies - she is the one getting hatcheted. The
controversy has mostly succeeded in portraying Poe
sympathetically, as the victim of unscrupulous,
politically motivated persecution. The ranks of FPJ
supporters stand ready, virtual foot soldiers, to wreak
their displeasure if their man is "cheated" of the
presidency. To them he cannot lose; much less can he be
disqualified for something as academic as citizenship.
Most of his supporters don't even have passports. How
can a slip of paper tell him what they know he is?
One thing is left unclear, which suggests there
may be one final irony in store. What if Poe becomes
president and the Supreme Court finds him to be a US
citizen? An American, Filipino nationalist president of
the Philippines? Or automatic US statehood?
(Copyright 2004 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All
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