Dual citizenship announced by Drilon

LOS ANGELES – June 12 Freedom Day celebrations here in Pinoy heavy Southern California was made specially significant for our expats with Senate President Franklin Drilon’s announcement that the Senate has passed the dual citizenship bill before Congress went on recess last week. Passing the measure by a vote of 16 in favor, zero against and one abstention (Biazon), the bill now goes to the House of Representatives.

I was on the same Philippine Airlines flight that took the Senate President to this city a week ago. The country’s third highest official was optimistic that it is only a matter of time before his pet proposal becomes part of the laws of the land. Sen. Drilon explained that the measure is not unusual in that a host of other nations have similar laws. There is a trend, he said, in this age of globalization, to make citizenship permanent, even if circumstances force a citizen to adopt another foreign country’s citizenship.

Drilon explained that the measure would benefit all Pinoys who are Filipinos by blood, meaning that their parents were Filipinos. They also don’t have to do anything, not even report to the Bureau of Immigration, to be able to exercise the full rights of a Filipino citizen to own land, vote and be voted upon.

I forgot to ask if together with full citizenship rights, come the obligations of citizenship as well. You know, like paying taxes. This is a sore point among many former Pinoys in America, including many of my relatives. I tried to check the text of the measure in the Senate website, but there was none. The website of Senator Drilon, on the other hand, had not been updated since 1999.

I will have to clarify that with the Senate President himself when I get back to Manila. I guess it is only fair that investing full rights should also mean exercising full responsibilities of citizenship. Otherwise, we will have a super class of Pinoys who can have their cake and eat it too.

Don’t get me wrong. I am all in favor of dual citizenship even for purely personal reasons. My children will definitely benefit from it. My son who is a permanent resident here would love to keep his citizenship (he has a small Filipino flag hanging in his car’s rear view mirror) but eventually, the tax question is one good reason to swear allegiance to the stars and stripes.

Also, it is a pain to travel anywhere on a Philippine passport. Just last week, we had to wait a whole morning to pick up my son’s visa to visit Spain. If he had an American passport, he wouldn’t need one. Not only would he have saved $30 and the time needed to get one (about a month), he would also get respect in European borders.

Actually, my son found it easier to get a similar Spanish visa during his visit to Spain last year. But with terrorism on the rise, he was told that citizens of the Philippines are now subject to special review. We have after all, been declared the second front in the worldwide war against terrorism by George Bush. That’s why there are US troops here running after Muslim extremists.

But our passport lost the world’s respect a long time ago. One of my brothers-in-law related to us that before he got his American citizenship, he traveled to Europe and his whole tour bus was stopped in one of the border crossings just because one of the passports was Philippine – his. That marked him out for extraordinary scrutiny.

Oh well. I guess nothing humbles a Filipino ego than going abroad and finding out that not only are we not the center of the universe, we seem to be in the dangerous far reaches of the galaxy as far as the rest of the world is concerned. Provided our politicians are not met by embassy or consular officials, letting them go abroad should be a good humbling experience they badly need.

But I saw Frank Drilon being whisked aside with what amounts to special treatment when we arrived. He didn’t have to fall in line and wait at immigration. I don’t even think they asked him to take off his shoes for inspection, like the last time.

80th birthday

I ended up being here because my mother-in-law celebrated her 80th birthday. Even as she lives in Manila, all her children with the exception of my wife are settled here. So are all her surviving siblings and assorted nephews, nieces and grandchildren. It was cheaper for us to come here than for all of them to go to Manila to celebrate.

It was to be expected, a typical Pinoy event. A hall in Knott’s Berry Farm overflowing with well-wishers could have been held in Barrio Fiesta or some Manila restaurant. The Filipino ambience pervaded the affair.

Luckily, the weather was warm enough for the Barong Tagalog to be worn without any danger of catching a cold.

My mother-in-law, Patricia Normandy Bonnevie, is part of a fairly large family in Pampanga that started when an American soldier married a local in the early 1900s. It is a fairly large but close knit family that also suffered losses during the Japanese occupation.

Practically everyone has gone back to settle in America with the exception of my mother-in-law, my wife and a cousin or two.

The American however, is completely overwhelmed by the Filipino even as they have settled back in America. At least with the generation of my wife, they still talk to each other in Tagalog, patronize the Filipino stores and keep abreast with what is going on back home.

The next generation is in some kind of a twilight zone. They don’t speak or understand Tagalog too much anymore, are more American than their parents but still associate with Fil-Am kids who were similarly born here. They are acutely aware of their heritage, one of them born in America has a Filipino flag in his room, but consider America their permanent home.

The fiesta in honor of my mother-in-law simply highlighted the primacy of the Filipino family – the extended variety. On my mother-in-law’s linage alone, there are 25 in all, down to the great grand children.

If the founder couple of this family, Edward Alfred Normandy and Isabel Halili were to see this now, I have no doubt they will be totally amazed at what they started. There must be over 250 of their descendants, given that they had nine children themselves to begin with.

I don’t know how to describe it. Fil-American fusion perhaps?

Pinoy humor

One thing Pinoys here retain is our particular kind of humor. Here is something I heard, a little dated but illustrates the point.

Host: Sino ang kauna-unahang Chess Grandmaster (Eugene Torre) of Asia na ang pangalan ay parang isa sa mga chess pieces?

Contestant: Carole KING?

Host: Hindi, mas mababa sa king

Contestant: Al QUINN?

Host: Hindi, tagalog ang apelyido niya.

Contestant: Armida Siguion-REYNA?

Host: Hindi pa rin. Mas mababa sa reyna.

Contestant: BISHOP Bacani?

Host: Mas mababa sa bishop.

Contestant: Johnny MidNIGHT?

Host: Mas mababa sa Knight.

Contestant: Jerry PONS?

Host: Oh, ayan na, nabanggit mo na lahat ng piyesa sa Chess. Yung kahuli-hulihang piyesa na lang.

Contestant: Sylvia laTORRE!

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]