Dual citizen Pinoy educators sought

MANILA, Philippines — Senators are pushing for a proposed measure that will allow Filipinos with dual citizenship to join public higher education institutions (HEIs) as faculty, researchers or administrators, to create a pool of internationally competitive faculty members.

Senators Sherwin Gatchalian and Joel Villanueva jointly filed Senate Bill 2733 amending the Citizenship Retention and Re-acquisition Act of 2003, so that people who retain and re-acquire their Philippine citizenship can be appointed as researchers, faculty or administrators of public HEIs without renouncing a previous oath of allegiance to another country.

The proposal will be an opportunity to increase the number of teachers willing to share their knowledge and experience from other countries, according to the senator.

Gatchalian pointed out that removing this restriction would create a pool of internationally competitive faculty members and would help address issues on the global ranking of public HEIs and declining inbound faculty.