It’s final: Mayor who used US passport disqualified

MANILA, Philippines - A candidate who uses an American passport after renouncing US citizenship is not qualified to hold public office as a natural-born resident.

This landmark ruling of the Supreme Court (SC), which laid down standards on eligibility for election of candidates who used foreign passports, is now final and executory.

It is seen to have implications on the disqualification case filed against Sen. Grace Poe over citizenship and residency requirements.

UPDATE: Lawyer says mayor's DQ over US passport not applicable to Poe's case

In a two-page resolution promulgated on Feb. 9, the SC issued an entry of judgment in the case of Kauswagan, Lanao del Norte Mayor Rommel Arnado.

The SC ruling, which became final last December, affirmed the disqualification of Arnado in the 2013 elections for using his American passport after renunciation of US citizenship.

The SC considered the use of a foreign passport by dual citizens as proof of ineligibility to hold public office as natural-born residents with undivided allegiance to the Philippines.

The ruling is seen to set a precedent that will have a bearing on the disqualification case against Poe in her bid for the presidency.

“Only natural-born Filipinos who owe total and undivided allegiance to the Republic of the Philippines could run for and hold elective public office,” stressed the ruling penned by Associate Justice Mariano del Castillo, who has been tasked to also write the draft decision on Poe’s case.

“By using his US passport, Arnado positively and voluntarily represented himself as an American, in effect, declaring before immigration authorities of both countries that he is an American citizen, with all attendant rights and privileges granted by the United States of America,” the high court pointed out.

The SC held the use of a foreign passport after renouncing one’s foreign citizenship “is a positive and voluntary act of representation as to one’s nationality and citizenship” and “does not divest one of the reacquired Filipino citizenship but recants the Oath of Renunciation required to qualify one to run for an elective position.”

“When Arnado used his US passport just eleven days after he renounced his US citizenship, he recanted his Oath of Renunciation that he ‘absolutely and perpetually renounce(s) all allegiance and fidelity to the United States of America’ and that he ‘divest(s) (him)self of full employment of all civil and political rights and privileges of the United States of America.’ This act of using a foreign passport after renouncing his foreign citizenship is fatal to Arnado’s bid for public office, as it effectively imposed on him a disqualification to run for an elective local position,” it stressed.

The SC explained that renunciation of foreign citizenship “is not a hollow oath that can simply be professed at any time, only to be violated the next day” and “requires an absolute and perpetual renunciation of the foreign citizenship and a full divestment of all civil and political rights granted by the foreign country which granted the citizenship.”

In Poe’s case, which has been submitted for resolution by the high tribunal after five hearings, it was learned that she continued to use her US passport until March 2010 after supposedly returning to the country in 2005.

Poe renounced her American citizenship only on Oct. 20, 2010, a day before she took her oath of office as chairperson of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board.

But Manuelito Luna, lawyer of former senator Francisco Tatad, one of four disqualification petitioners against Poe in the Commission on Elections, earlier cited records of US State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs possibly showing Poe still used her US passport after renouncing her American citizenship.

Luna said the documents indicated Poe used her US passport in September 2011, a month before her passport expired.

He said the SC should apply its Arnado ruling on Poe’s case.

“We’ve pointed out in our memorandum that two evidence show the use of US passport from 2006 to 2011 – Questionnaire Info on Possible Loss of US Nationality and motion for reconsideration of Poe on resolution of 1st Division of Comelec,” he said in a text message.

The Constitution requires presidential candidates to be natural-born citizens with residency in the country of at least 10 years prior to Election Day. 

Records showed Poe got married to Teodoro Misael Daniel Llamanzares on July 27, 1991. Two days later, they went to the US together and decided to start a family there.

It was only on Oct. 18, 2001, or about 10 years later, when she became a US citizen.

After her father, the late movie actor Fernando Poe Jr., died in December 2004, she and her family decided to return to the Philippines for good sometime in the first quarter of 2005 to be with her mother, veteran actress Susan Roces.

In July 2006, Poe took her oath of allegiance to the Philippines. The Bureau of Immigration recognized her reacquisition of natural-born Philippine citizenship that same month. She and her children then became dual citizens.

It was found during oral arguments, however, that Poe was recognized by the BI after she claimed she was the biological daughter of FPJ and Roces.

On the issue of residency, the Comelec held Poe failed to reestablish her domicile in the country that she had lost when she became a naturalized American citizen.

The poll body stressed that Poe’s intention to stay in the country for good was absent since she decided to keep her US citizenship, continued to use her US passport until 2010 after returning here in 2005 and was ambivalent on residing in the country.

The Comelec insisted Poe reacquired her domicile in the country only on Aug. 31, 2006, which means her residency eligibility would still fall short by about three months.