Many Filipinos in Australia are familiar with the concept of dual citizenship. In fact, this publication was founded on the very premise that Filipinos who move to Australia or were born in Australia have a dual identity, embracing both their Filipino and Australian culture.

  Not just culture, some Filo-Aussies decide later in life to make their dual identity official by applying for their Filipino citizenship through the Consulate office in their state while retaining their Australian citizenship.

  Here is a link on the requirements and eligibility rules for dual citizenship.

  The idea of questioning someone's citizenship was a big deal a couple of years ago here in Oz when it emerged that some politicians were dual citizens.

By law, only  Australian citizens can run for office. It turned out that some politicians didn't even know they were dual citizens by birth because their own parents didn't renounce their original citizenship (e.g. New Zealand or UK citizenship). The whole saga became known as the 2017-18 Australian Parliamentary eligibility crisis.

It appears that the Philippines is going through a similar debacle about dual citizenship with none other than the citizenship of ABS-CBN chair Gabby Lopez under scrutiny.

The Australian Filipina decided to dig up a couple of statements from the ABS-CBN press release hub to get some light on the issue. 

Here are the official statements from ABS-CBN:

Released on May 11, 2020:

Mr. Gabby Lopez is a Filipino citizen.

He was born to Filipino parents — under the 1935 Constitution that was in effect when he was born — which automatically makes him a Filipino citizen.

He did not need to acquire Filipino citizenship because he never lost it nor renounced it.

He was born in the US and under the US Constitution, he is also a US citizen.

A passport is not the sole proof of citizenship. When Mr. Lopez asked the Bureau of Immigration to recognize his citizenship, it was for the purpose of getting official recognition of his Filipino citizenship.

The Department of Justice and the Bureau of Immigration have both recognized the Philippine citizenship from birth of Mr. Lopez as contained in Identification Certificate No. 0069 dated 1 Oct 2002.

The accusation resurfaced once again in a congressional deliberation so seven days after the May 11 release, the ABS-CBN had to issue the following statement:

Released on May 18, 2020:

ABS-CBN is stunned by the accusations raised while Congress was deliberating on House Bill 6732 – a proposal to grant a provisional franchise to ABS-CBN. The accusations have been asked and answered under oath by various government agencies as well as by ABS-CBN executives at the senate hearing last February 24.

In that hearing, the SEC, NTC, and BIR have all testified that ABS-CBN had no violations as it relates to their specific agency. DOLE Sec. Silvestre Bello III also said in an interview that ABS-CBN is fully compliant of labor standards. While ABS-CBN acknowledged that there remain pending cases including those in court, ABS-CBN will abide by the decisions of the relevant authorities as decisions on these cases are made.

Accusations as to the citizenship of Mr. Gabby Lopez were also answered under oath at the Senate. Finally, ABS-CBN has acknowledged the efforts of Congress in resolving their franchise application by issuing a statement of gratitude to Congress which was issued on May 13, 2020 – the same day that the bill was introduced in Congress.

The accusations were made without any evidence submitted and authenticated, and without the ability for ABS-CBN to reply. We assure our public and our employees that ABS-CBN will reply to these accusations in the proper forum.

In other words, Mr. Lopez is a Filipino citizen by virtue of having Filipino parents and is a US citizen because he was physically born in the US (and automatically got his citizenship by birthplace).

Dual citizenship is a curly issue. Even Australian politicians got caught up in the lack of information around it. 

But to say Mr. Lopez is not a Filipino citizen is false. As a dual citizen, he abides by the laws of two countries and have to deal with the regulatory and tax rules in both countries accordingly.

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