Condemning Grace

My heart always go out to people who are discriminated against, ridiculed, and mocked based on the circumstances of their birth.  For one, not even Jesus Christ himself had the power to design the circumstances to which he would be born into.  Mary and Joseph, His earthly parents, weren't His choice.  Bethlehem was not his Choice.  Being a carpenter and a preacher and a teacher were not His choice.  And neither was being crucified His choice!  Jesus was the Son of God and yet He had no choice but to yield to the circumstances to which His Heavenly Father subjected him to.  And yet, at present, in the Philippine politics, a strong contender for the two highest political seats in the land, is being castigated for her questionable descent.

Sen. Grace Poe is said to have been a foundling abandoned in my native Iloilo.  A churchgoer found her and entrusted her to a rich haciendera who eventually gave her up to be adopted by Susan Roces and Fernando Poe.  Her parents being unknown makes her nationality questionable.  Some allege that one of her parents may not be a Filipino afterall.  As such, she meets the constitutional disqualification for being a non-natural born Filipino citizen. 

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Several other stories though have surfaced alleging that Sen. Poe is actually the daughter of former President Ferdinand Marcos and Susan Roces' younger sister, actress Rosemarie Sonora.  A version which makes me want to puke.

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People hurl so many accusations and allegations as if they know the truth.  But, seriously, what is the truth?  Or more precisely, does the truth matter at all?  

Sen. Grace Poe may bear a "stranger's" name, be the former president's love-child, or the foundling abandoned by parents who DID NOT WANT HER --- but does it matter where she's from?  Whom she's from?  How she came to be?

Is it not enough that she has emerged to be the person she is now: humble, selfless, dedicated, compassionate, God-fearing, conscientious, noble, and a public servant worth-emulating?  

Why must a person be bound by the sins of his father?  Or in the case of Sen. Poe, by the "sins" of her parents?  Granting for the sake of argument that Pres. Marcos and Rosemarties Sonora were indeed her true parents, SO WHAT?  Will that fact make Sen. Grace Poe less of a person?  Will that make her an inferior creature and make those who insist on such fact what, NOBLE? VIRTUOUS? SUPREME?

None of us has the power to design the circumstances of our birth.  We cannot choose our parents.  We cannot choose our family.  We cannot choose our race.  But there are things we are privileged to choose:  our spouse, our career, our community, and more importantly, the leaders to vote for come election time.  Sadly, the vast majority, almost always choose to waste such important privilege.  And castigate, mock, ridicule the likes of Sen. Grace whose only "sin" is not knowing (or uncovering?) her true lineage.