With her emergence as a strong candidate for president or vice president in the 2016 elections, Senator Grace Poe Llamanzares has suddenly found herself in a bind.
A day after the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) revealed Poe lacks the 10-year residency requirement to run either for president or vice president, three of the country’s prominent law experts said Poe could be disqualified from the 2016 presidential or vice presidential race for failing to meet the residency provision in the Constitution for the two highest positions in government.
Two administration allies, however, believe otherwise, saying all that Poe needs to prove to qualify to run for either of the two top positions in government is to show proof of her intention to return to the country to prove her residency.
Former University of the Philippine Law School Dean Pacifico Agabin said that Article VII, Section 2 of the Constitution “explicitly” states that a presidential or vice presidential candidate must be “a resident of the Philippines for at least 10 years immediately preceding such election.”
MANILA BULLETIN
