SC: Dual citizens running for office must renounce citizenship

MANILA, Philippines - The failure to renounce foreign citizenship renders a dual citizen ineligible to hold any elective public office, the Supreme Court (SC) said yesterday.

The SC made the declaration in dismissing the petition of a winning vice-mayoral candidate of Caba, La Union who was unseated after being disqualified on the ground that her personal declaration of renunciation of her Australian citizenship was not under oath as required by Republic Act 9225 or the Citizenship Retention and Re-Acquisition Act of 2003.

The SC said the ruling is in accordance with the provisions of Section 5 (2) of RA 9225.

In a 24-page decision penned by Justice Bienvenido Reyes, the SC upheld the resolution of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Sept. 6, 2011 affirming the decision of the lower court in disqualifying Teodora Sobejana-Condon as vice mayor of Caba, La Union.

The SC noted Condon was disqualified for her failure to renounce her Australian citizenship under oath, contrary to the provisions of RA 9225.

“The language of the provision is plain and unambiguous. It expresses a single, definite, and sensible meaning and must thus be read literally. The foreign citizenship must be formally rejected through an affidavit duly sworn before an officer authorized to administer oath,” the SC said.

The SC held Condon’s act of running for public office is not sufficient to serve as an effective renunciation of her Australian citizenship.

While the SC has previously declared that the filing by a person with dual citizenship of a certificate of candidacy is already considered a renunciation of foreign citizenship, such ruling was already adjudged superseded by the enactment of RA 9255.

The law provides for the additional condition of a personal and sworn renunciation of foreign citizenship.

“The fact that petitioner won the elections can not cure the defect of her candidacy” since “garnering the most number of votes does not validate the election of a disqualified candidate because the application of the constitutional and statutory provisions on disqualification is not a matter of popularity,” the SC said.

“Petitioner is yet to regain her political right to seek elective office. Unless she executes a sworn renunciation of her Australian citizenship, she is ineligible to run for and hold any elective office in the Philippines,” the high court said.

The SC also held that it could not go beyond the Australian Citizen Act of 1978. Condon invoked the Australian law in saying she is deemed to have lost her Australian citizenship when RA 9225 comes into play.

Condon was a natural-born Filipino citizen on Aug. 8, 1944 but became a naturalized Australian citizen due to her marriage to Kevin Thomas Condon on Dec. 13, 1984.

On Dec. 2, 2005, she filed an application to re-acquire Philippine citizenship before the Philippine embassy in Canberra, Australia under RA 9225. This was approved and she took her oath of allegiance on Dec. 5, 2005.

On Sept. 18, 2006, she filed an unsworn Declaration of Renunciation of Australian Citizenship before the Department of Immigration and Indigenous Affairs, Canberra, Australia, which in turn issued the order dated Sept. 27, 2006 certifying that she has ceased to be an Australian citizen.

She ran for mayor in her hometown of Caba, La Union in the 2007 elections.

However, she lost her bid and ran again in 2010, this time winning as vice mayor. Condon took her oath of office on May 13, 2010.

Registered voters in Caba led by Luis Bautista filed a petition before the Bauang, La Union Regional Trial Court questioning Condon’s eligibility, pointing out she failed to execute “a personal and sworn renunciation of any and all foreign citizenship before any public officer authorized to administer an oath.”

The Bauang RTC on Oct. 22, 2010 granted the petition and declared Condon ineligible to run and hold public office for her failure to comply with RA 9225.

Condon appealed the decision before the Comelec, but the poll body dismissed her appeal.