Party-list nominee ousted over US citizenship

MANILA, Philippines - Johnny Revilla has been ousted as second nominee in Congress of the OFW Family Club (OFWFC) party-list for his refusal to renounce his US citizenship and failure to help in the political campaign. 

Former ambassador Roy Señeres is the group’s first nominee.

The OFWFC got two seats in Congress after garnering nearly a million votes in the last elections. 

In a resolution last May 27, OFWFC said: “The OFWFC cannot be a party to a culpable violation of the Constitution, which prohibits a foreigner to run for public office in the Philippines.” 

Señeres did not say why the resolution was not immediately released to the public.

The resolution said Revilla falsely claimed in an affidavit he had submitted to the Commission on Elections that he possesses all the qualifications and none of the disqualifications as a nominee. 

“However, it was discovered later that he is a US citizen, for which he was asked by Ambassador Señeres to renounce his citizenship, to which he said he was going to think over it,” read the resolution. “The OFWFC obtained a document from the Bureau of Immigration, which shows that starting 2002 up to 2009, Johnny Revilla was using a US passport in his travels overseas.” 

The resolution said Señeres had sent Revilla a letter of clarification if he had already renounced his US citizenship, but that he did not reply. 

Revilla did not also make good on his promises to help in the campaign of the OFWFC, the resolutions said.