Dual citizenship bill passage assured

Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. and Senate President Franklin Drilon have agreed on the passage of the proposed Dual Citizenship Bill that would allow Filipinos who have acquired foreign citizenship to become Filipinos again.

The country’s laws do not allow dual citizenship and double allegiance. A Filipino loses his citizenship the moment he swears in as a national of another country.

De Venecia said yesterday Filipinos who have acquired foreign citizenship "have remained Filipinos at heart, and I believe they will love to invest and retire here some day."

That possibility could strongly boost the property sector and the economy in general, he said.

Several senators and congressmen, however, are against the bill allowing dual citizenship.

The agreement to approve the Dual Citizenship Bill was reached last Friday during a meeting among De Venecia, Drilon, Senate Majority Leader Loren Legarda and House Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II.

Others present in the meeting were House Deputy Majority Leader Francis Escudero and Rep. Robert Ace Barbers (Lakas, Surigao del Norte), accounts committee chairman.

De Venecia said the dual citizenship measure will strengthen the Absentee Voting Bill that would allow about seven million Filipinos overseas to vote in national elections here.

"These are the major electoral reform measures that we would like Congress to pass this year," he said.

Last week, the Senate already opened deliberations on the Absentee Voting Bill with its principal author, opposition Sen. Edgardo Angara, defending the measure.

The House is yet to start its own debates. Angara’s House counterpart is Rep. Augusto "Boboy" Syjuco, chairman of the electoral reform committee.

In March and April, the two chambers held consultations on the measure with overseas Filipino workers in Asia, the Middle East, Italy, and the United States.