On citizenship

I grew up in simpler times when citizenship and patriotism are one and the same. In those days, I went with the strict interpretation of restrictive laws that favor the citizen in his own country.

But times have changed and things have become more complicated. In the past, I saw the logic behind our citizenship laws that a person can only be loyal to one country. A man can’t serve two masters, Jesus once said, either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other.

Then we sent our people away to earn a living in foreign lands. Over 10 million out of our 100 million people are living abroad. Some are on short-or long-term work contracts while many have chosen permanent residence or even naturalization in their host countries.

So Congress passed a law allowing dual citizenship. A Filipino can take on a foreign citizenship and still keep his or her Filipino citizenship. It recognizes the reality that being Filipino is in the heart.

It is as it should be. As my colleague Danny Buenafe puts it: “Ako si Danny Buenafe, ama..anak... mamahayag at kahit dual citizen, hindi tinalikuran at bagkus ipinagmamalaki ang lahing Filipino, sa isip, salita at gawa!!” Danny heads ABS-CBN’s European News Bureaus and he had to take on British citizenship to be able to do his work more efficiently. Our passport has serious travel limitations.

Beyond the Global Pinoys, Congress went too far and diluted the concept of citizenship. They trivialized citizenship to make it no more than a legal status, a piece of paper. Citizenship by convenience has been recognized by an act of Congress.

Our Congress shamelessly voted to grant Filipino citizenship to Andray Blatche who probably hasn’t even given the Philippines a thought before he was drafted in our basketball team. He would likely throw out his Philippine passport once his contract here expires.

It is the same thing in football and other sports. Obviously, non-Filipino players are playing on our teams. We have made sports mercenaries honorable. We have demeaned the sacredness of our original concept of being a Filipino.

Can those foreign players sing the Pambansang Awit in Pilipino or even have a conversation in the national language? It is too much to expect them to tear up when singing that anthem, something many of us do. Of course they cannot feel the song’s patriotic sentiment. They don’t even understand it.

How meaningful are sports victories won by teams many of whose players aren’t really Filipinos? Maybe other countries are doing it to win tournaments, but other countries are selling citizenships too. We don’t want to be like those other countries.

Maybe, in the modern world, citizenship is really just a legal status, a piece of paper. Everyone is coming and going all over the world and what passport one is holding is a matter of convenience. So, how do we know who is truly Pinoy?

If we are now accepting this new modern version of citizenship, why is there so much hypocrisy around? Some of the very people who trivialized Filipino citizenship by passing those silly special laws for basketball players, are now invoking a strict interpretation of citizenship requirements to suit their political agenda.

Worse, someone like Jim Paredes, who brought his family to Australia is publicly speaking as if he didn’t turn his back on the country. By trying to put down a candidate to favor his own, he just makes a hypocrite of himself. Last Monday, I considered him a true Pinoy despite his migration because being Pinoy is in the heart.

But he subsequently spoke up and his hypocrisy is contemptible. Paredes believes Poe shouldn’t become president because she had acquired a US passport.

“Poe may be legally Filipino, and may even have the right to run as president. That’s for SC to decide and we should abide. But I do not like a candidate who once renounced being Filipino to become American and then takes it back to run for the highest office in the land,” he said.

I suppose there is a legal difference between his immigrant status or the equivalent of the American green card and Grace’s US passport. But in his heart, he turned his back on his country too. If we challenged him to give up his Australian green card, will he?

He gave up on the country when Erap was elected president. I didn’t like Erap either, but I stayed. I can understand as a parent why he did what he did for his children’s future. But accusing Grace Poe of turning her back on her country, teka muna… parang pareho lang kayo minus the legal gobbledygook.

Some of the comments to my column last Monday strongly expressed the opinion that by swearing allegiance to another country, one has turned his or her back to the country. This person cannot go back as if nothing happened and aspire to be president.

Actually, I am more worried about a candidate who has never taken an oath of allegiance to another country, but whose life is a story of treachery to the Filipino people. And the treachery need not be on a matter of national security, but in such things like stealing from the coffers of government.

There are those who never left the country, but who have been selling us out. Many of these people hold high government positions, get elected/appointed and appear respectable. These include justices and judges who sell their decisions, for instance.  

Since we seem to have accepted a new concept of citizenship, we may as well not rule out for public service qualified people who may have lived abroad and may have even taken foreign citizenship. Given our dual citizenship law, renouncing foreign allegiances should be enough to restore full political rights to any Pinoy.

Indeed, I have often said the future of this country depends on the enlightenment our Pinoy Diaspora will bring back home. The revolution against Spain and the war against American annexation were led by Pinoys who saw the light while abroad.

Here is one comment I got from Eddie R. Babaran:

I think it’s time for us Filipinos to try someone who studied, worked, and lived for several years abroad who can inject a fresh and different approach to our rotten system.

As far as that someone displays sincerity and determination to serve in public office with a platform of meaningful reform, I will vote for that someone regardless of his/her former citizenship.

Both Ben Gurion and Golda Meir were not born in Israel but because they were very Jewish at heart, eventually they served the Jewish state in its infancy and guided it to maturity with remarkable leadership.

Andreas Papandreou, a former naturalized American but a natural born Greek, served his old country with distinction, implementing socialist and foreign policy reforms that raised the standard of living and world recognition of Greece.

The issue on the citizenship of Grace Poe is a matter for the Supreme Court to decide. But it is good the case provided us an opportunity to think about what citizenship really means to us beyond the legal definition.

Debates 

Now is the time for Comelec to do something about the way we conduct our presidential elections. It is much too expensive (perpetuates corruption from vested interest donations) and the campaign focuses on boodle fights rather than on real discussion of issues.

In the US today, the presidential debates are starting to help give voters an idea of who the candidates are. Lesser known candidates like Carly Fiorina are starting to get attention because of good performance in the last debate.

Our election will be held six months before the Americans, but we have not had a single debate yet. Indeed, according to the Comelec, we will have the first one only in February. And only three will be held, one each for Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

That’s not enough and too late to do the job. We need to have one per region. Ideally, it should be one per province, if only we didn’t break up into too many provinces.

Each debate should be covered by media with air time paid for by Comelec at public service rates. The debate may yet equalize the chances of less moneyed candidates.

My only concern, in the absence of a two party system, is the danger of making the debates trivial by a platoon of nuisance candidates. Comelec may have to sideline those who obviously don’t have a constituency to make their candidacies viable.

We are desperate to hear a real discussion of critical issues and that won’t happen through political advertising, sound bites and memes.

How about it, Chairman Andy Bautista?

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco.