Eulo Regala’s banishment

Four years ago, in September of 2021, this writer revealed that Eulo Regala, who played for the Negros Slashers, Cagayan de Oro Amigos and Surigao Warriors in the Metropolitan Basketball Association from 1998 to 2000, had been banned from returning to the Philippines. Despite the fact that his grandfather and father are both Filipino, he has not been allowed to set foot in his home country for 25 years.

“When I first found out was during a break in our season. Towards the end of my contract in 2000, I went back here (to the US) to get better from a back injury,” explains Regala, a hard-working, versatile player. “A couple of weeks later, I got phone calls from relatives saying that I’m all over the news in the Philippines, that I was blacklisted. I didn’t know anything about that.”

Regala says that his understanding was that the matter was simple to clear up, but since he had missed the court date he was unaware of, the blacklist was enforced. At the time, the Bureau of Immigration imposed a heavy fine of P250,000 up, as a deterrent to keep fake Fil-Am players from trying to work in the country. Eulo, the namesake of his father Eulo Regala Sr., says that the fines have gone down substantially over the years. Under the Philippine Constitution, children born to Filipino fathers or mothers are citizens from birth, irrespective of where they are born, due to jus sanguinis. Jus Sanguinis is a principle of nationality law where citizenship is determined by the nationality of one or both parents, rather than by the place of birth. A child inherits citizenship from their family lineage, regardless of place of birth.

“Technically, I am Filipino. Even my daughter has her Filipino passport,” reveals the basketball coach. “I found out that it doesn’t have to do with any kind of citizenship or working visas or anything. They’re saying that all this is because I missed the court date. That’s the reason all of this happened.”

His 5’9” daughter Nadeya is expected to arrive in March to join the Philippine women’s basketball team. The gritty 20-year old outside shooter, now playing with the Towson University Tigers, has been on scouts’ radar since grade school. Eulo is expecting to join his youngest girl to finally lay this issue to rest. Despite his troubles, he has designs to giving back to his native land.

“There are a couple of areas that are special to me,” he explains. “The first being Sampaloc in Manila, where my wife (Nadeya’s mother) who passed away is from. What I’m looking to do is to take a basketball court or park there, and redoing it in honor of Juvale’s name. And the other one would be in Naga City, where my father’s from. That’s the two-fold thing I want to do if I can get there in March.”

The case of Eulo Regala and a few others of his generation is, in basketball terms, a correctible error. But they’ve fallen through the cracks with nobody looking out for them. It could be as simple as someone stamping their papers to clean up this misunderstanding, and 25 years of emotional strain can be undone. Eulo has done what he can. Someone in the government on this end has to do theirs.

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