I'm a natural-born Pinoy - says Poe

Senator Grace Poe has stressed that she’s a natural-born Filipino and that she already renounced her American citizenship when she first entered government service as chair of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB).

Poe issued the statement in reaction to a news story questioning the legality of her possible candidacy as president or vice president in 2016 on account of her Filipino and American citizenship under the Philippine Dual Citizenship Law.

Under the law, Poe had to renounce her US citizenship before joining government and she’s already done that, she said.  

“That was a condition, if you will serve in the government, for whatever position, you have to give up whatever other citizenship you may have,” Poe said in the vernacular.

She said she held dual citizenship when she lived with her father, the late actor and presidential candidate Fernando Poe, Jr., in the US.

Poe said she consulted the author of that law, Senate President Franklin Drilon, who assured her that upon renouncing her US citizenship her status would revert back to being a natural-born Filipino.

Poe, who is gaining in the presidential surveys on the front-running Vice President Jejomar Binay, said whatever legal issues on her citizenship should have already been decided when she ran for senator in 2013. -end-

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