THE Supreme Court has ordered the Public Attorney's Office (PAO) to present a 73-year-old Filipino American at a hearing on his deportation case.
PAO chief Persida Rueda-Acosta told The Manila Times that she will abide by the order from the court's Second Division before which Walter Manuel Prescott is appealing his deportation.
In a notice dated February 24, Division Clerk of Court Teresita Aquino-Tuazon set the hearing for March 13.
Aquino-Tuazon also required the Office of the Solicitor General to submit its comment before the scheduled hearing on Prescott's petition for review on certiorari.
Rueda-Acosta hailed the high court for its action on the case of Prescott whom she said has been unlawfully arrested and detained despite records showing that he is not an alien as claimed by the Bureau of Immigration (BI).
Born in the Philippines to a Filipino mother and an American father, Prescott has been in PAO's custody for over five years before he was detained by the BI.
The PAO elevated the case of Prescott before the Supreme Court since it could not wait for the Court of Appeals (CA) to decide the urgent motion for reconsideration it filed.
Rueda-Acosta said the complaint against Prescott that he illegally acquired Philippine citizenship through the Citizenship Retention and Re-acquisition Act of 2003 (Republic Act 9225) was an attack on his citizenship.
'Prescott, who has been suffering from various ailments, is not an alien, he is a natural born-citizen. He's born of a Filipino mother named Hilda Fernandez,' she said.
Rueda-Acosta said she was confident that the Supreme Court will approve Prescott's petition, citing 'tangible records' certifying his being a natural-born Filipino citizen.
In its earlier ruling, the CA had directed the PAO to turn over custody of Prescott to the BI that arrested and detained him in August 2015.
'When the 1973 Constitution took effect, Prescott became a Filipino citizen by operation of the highest law of the land. While Prescott was born on April 10, 1950, during which the 1935 Constitution was still in effect, the 1973 Constitution was enacted on Jan. 17, 1973 when he was still 22 years old or only one year after reaching the age of majority (21 years old at that time),' PAO said.
PAO Forensics Division chief Dr. Erwin Erfe, whose office has been taking care of Prescott, echoed Rueda-Acosta's plea to the court to rule on his case soon, considering his worsening health condition.
Erfe said Prescott suffers from various ailments like benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, chronic recurrent headache, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, acute gastroenteritis and upper respiratory tract infection. He is also unfit to travel and is confined to a wheelchair.
In a conversation with The Times, Prescott appealed to the courts to review his case.