Good faith not a defense in Grace Poe’s case, Comelec tells SC

Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Arthur Lim on Tuesday said the poll body was not buying Sen. Grace Poe’s claim that the error in her certificate for candidacy was an honest mistake and done in good faith.

During the fourth round of oral arguments, Bernabe asked Lim if the Comelec would have cancelled Poe’s COC anyway, if Poe would be able to prove she committed misrepresentations in her COC in good faith.

In response, Lim said finding good faith in Poe’s actions when she applied to re-acquire her citizenship and bought properties in the country was “somewhat an impossibility."

Lim noted how Poe claimed in her application to re-acquire her Philippine citizenship filed with the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation in 2006 that she was born, not to adoptive parents, but to to biological parents.

The Comelec official also noted how Poe indicated she was a Filipino citizen in land titles for the properties she acquired in San Juan City and Quezon City in June 2006.

"Since good faith was an impossible finding, we would have found her ineligible. It was simply impossible to find there was good faith on her part,” said Lim.

Lim said good faith "implies honesty of intention and freedom from knowledge of circumstances that would put people under inquiry."

Anyway, Lim said Section 78 of the Omnibus Election Code is "plain and couched in simple language [that] it does not admit good faith as a defense.”

Section 78 states that a verified petition seeking to deny due course or to cancel a COC may be filed by a person, exclusively on the ground that any material representation is false. -NB, GMA News