Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano. LYN RILLON/INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
“Let me state categorically. I am not an American citizen. I never chose to be an American citizen. I am a Filipino and this is my only nationality.”
And so declared Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano on Thursday as he slammed as “hatchet job, defamation and fake news” an Inquirer.net column that asked whether he was a Philippine citizen.
Cayetano protested that the Inquirer had not even got his side before putting out the opinion piece.
The article Cayetano referred to is actually a column written by US-based Rodel Rodis (Is Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano a PH citizen? ). Another Inquirer columnist, Oscar Franklin Tan, has also written his opinion on the matter (Yasay and Cayetano citizenship different). In his column, Tan said the law cited by Rodis did not exist.
Saying he was born to “wonderful parents,” Cayetano said his father was the late Sen. Renato Cayetano, and his mother is an American.
By the laws of both the Philippines and the United States, Cayetano said he was “both a Filipino and American when I was born.”
He said when he decided to run for councilor in Taguig City, he told his father his plan to renounce his US citizenship and it took some prodding until eventually his father relented.
Cayetano said his father finally agreed because the latter “saw my passion for public service and he saw that I wanted to have no other allegiance.”
“Dual citizenship is not prohibited but dual allegiance is,” he said.
He recalled that after that time there was no legal necessity to choose one’s citizenship.
He also said the article was “malicious” because it had stated that it was unclear what happened to the complaint filed against him by Pateros Mayor Jose Capco Jr. over questions of his citizenship.
Had the author checked, Cayetano said it was clear that he won that case filed against him before the Commission on Elections.
“The Comelec said consistent with the Philippine Constitution, consistent with jurisprudence, Alan was born with two citizenships,” he said, adding he showed he had a US visa in his passport to show he was not an American citizen.
Cayetano also said the article was comparing his case to Perfecto Yasay Jr., when he stressed they have a different case.
Yasay was appointed as foreign secretary by President Duterte but his appointment was rejected by the Commission on Appointments because he had lied he was a US citizen.
“My question to Inquirer and to the one who wrote the report. At what price did you sell one sided news and malicious views?” Cayetano said.
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