The Republic of Fil-America

SHOULD an alien come to visit our blighted land and learn our language without its nuances, he will be puzzled when he starts searching for the Republic of Fil-America. Newspapers report that its citizens, the Fil-Ams, are the most athletic, beautiful and eloquent. Sadly, he will not find that republic in any map because the place is actually a state of mind, maybe nothing more than a national excuse. He can however consult our statute books concerning the legal status of Fil-Ams and find Republic Act 9225 which is the Dual Citizenship Law.

The law's long title can be shortened to "The Citizenship Retention and Re-acquisition Act of 2003." It allows a former citizen of the Philippines who has been naturalized as a citizen of another country to re-acquire his Philippine citizenship upon taking a carefully worded oath of allegiance. He promises to obey all our laws and accept and recognize the supreme authority of the Philippines and maintain true faith and allegiance to it. The oath is short and sweet and does not require the declarant to renounce his current citizenship, be it American, Canadian, Australian, Spanish — all of which makes him or her automatically a "Fil-American" in the eyes of Filipinos.