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NEARLY
43,000 former Filipinos have already reacquired their
Philippine citizenship since the Bureau of Immigration
(BI) started implementing the dual-citizenship law more
than three years ago, Immigration Commissioner Marcelino
Libanan said on Monday.
Libanan
said that of the total 42,879 applications for dual
citizenship that have been approved, 14,479 were
processed at the BI main office in Intramuros, while
28,400 were filed with the various Philippine consulates
abroad.
“As a
result, these former Filipinos are again enjoying their
rights and privileges as citizens of the Philippines,”
Libanan said, who was one of the principal authors of
Republic Act 9225, or the Citizenship Retention and
Reacquisition Act.
The law
was enacted in 2003 but the BI started processing
applications only in April 2004 after Malacañang
designated the bureau as the lead implementing agency
for the said law.
Libanan
explained that under the said act, former natural-born
Filipinos who later became naturalized citizens of other
countries are deemed not to have lost their Philippine
citizenship.
He said
the law was enacted in line with the thrust of President
Arroyo’s administration to encourage former Filipinos
now settled overseas to return to their land of their
birth and buy properties and invest in here.
Manuel
Ferdinand Arbas, who heads the BI technical staff on
dual citizenship, said his team receives an average of
between 10 and 20 applications for dual citizenship a
day.
Arbas
said there has been an upsurge in the number of
applicants since the BI came out with new guidelines
that eased the requirements for availing of dual
citizenship.
Under
the revised rules, applicants for dual citizenship are
no longer obliged to submit birth certificates issued by
the National Statistics Office to prove that they are
former natural-born Filipinos.
Instead,
an applicant may submit a copy of his birth certificate
issued by the civil registrar in his birthplace and
other documents, such as his old Philippine passport,
voter’s affidavit and marriage contract, proving that he
is a former natural-born Filipino.
Arbas
also said that former Filipinos who became Americans
topped the list of the applicants, followed by those
from Canada and Australia.
He said
the Department of Foreign Affairs regularly transmits to
the BI the list and records of approved dual-citizenship
applicants so that the latter may secure their
identification certificates and leave their fingerprint
files with the bureau once they visit the Philippines. |
