KURSUNADA ni Pangulong Rodrigo Duterte na matupad ang naunsyaming ambisyon ni Sen. Grace Poe na maging Pangulo ng Filipinas, ngunit sa isang bagong Konstitusyon na kikilalanin ang “foundlings.”
Sa kanyang talumpati sa Cavite City kamakalawa ng gabi, sinabi ng Pangulo na wala siyang problema dahil kaibigan niya ang senadora.
“I like Grace Poe to be President someday if the requirement remains to be same. But, I said, I think we will amend the Constitution and make that exemption, that the foundling(s) are already qualified,” sabi ng Pangulo.
Ang desisyon aniya ng Korte Suprema na nagpahintulot kay Poe na kumandidato sa 2016 presidential race sa kabila ng mahigpit na probisyon sa 1987 Constitution na ang pangulo ay dapat isang “natural-born Filipino” ang nag-udyok sa kanya na tumakbo sa halalan.
Si Poe, inampon nina Fernando Poe, Jr. at Susan Roces, ay isang foundling.
“The only way to be a natural-born is really to go out of your mother’s womb. You are already a Filipino. But there’s a treaty somewhere that (the foundlings) are pitiful and I agree with the treaty. That a person cannot be stateless. It would really be a pity (for) a human being to have no citizenship. And that’s why the treaty mandates every member of the United Nations recognizing the treaty, if you are a signatory to that, or those who do not know the mother or father, are considered citizens of the country where they are found,” ani Duterte.
“A treaty overruling a very poignant and strict requirement that you must be a citizen when you were born. Because if you don’t have know father or mother, you are a foundling, and then you cannot really say with certainty now that you are a natural-born citizen…I disagreed with the Supreme Court,” dagdag ng Pangulo.
(ROSE NOVENARIO)