Dear Atty. Chris Liquigan,

My niece was born in the United States. We appeared at the California Consulate for a Report of Birth and then applied for her Philippine Passport with the same consulate. Now she has two passports. US and Filipino. Since she has a Philippine Passport, is she recognized as Filipino already?

Linda

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Dear Linda,

It can be deduced from your narration that either the parents or both of them are Filipino citizens. This is because when their daughter was born, the Philippine Consular Office in San Francisco, California, USA, accepted the registration of the fact of your niece's birth. She was even given a Philippine passport, which is only granted to Filipino citizens. This conclusion is based on Paragraph (3), Section 1, Article IV of the 1987 Philippine Constitution which states that the citizens of the Philippines are "Those whose fathers or mothers are citizens of the Philippines."

Based on the foregoing, your niece is a natural-born Filipino citizen. Natural-born citizens are those who are citizens of the Philippines from birth without having to perform any act to acquire or perfect their Philippine citizenship. (Section 2, Article IV, 1987 Philippine Constitution)

However, since she was born in the USA, she is also a US citizen pursuant to the doctrine of jus soli. According to this doctrine, citizenship is conferred by virtue of the place of birth, which is observed in many countries including the USA. Since your niece was born in US territory, then she is considered a US citizen.

As such, your niece holds dual citizenship. She is a Filipino and a US citizen at the same time. Dual citizenship is now recognized in the Philippines in accordance with Republic Act 9225, or the Citizenship Retention and Re-acquisition Act of 2003. Under this law, a former natural-born citizen of the Philippines may now re-acquire his Philippine citizenship by taking his oath of allegiance to the Philippines without having to renounce allegiance to other countries or give up his citizenship with another country.

The act of registering the birth of your niece with the Philippine Consulate is not required to perfect Philippine citizenship. There is nothing to be done for her to be recognized as a Filipino citizen, she being an offspring of Filipino parents. It is only required for record purposes as mandated by Act 3753, or the Law on Registry of Civil Status. Thus, even without registration, your daughter is a Filipino citizen by operation of law, she just has to prove that either or both her parents are Filipino citizens.

However, if in the future she will renounce her Philippine citizenship, she has to undergo the process as prescribed by RA 9225 for her to re-acquire the same.

Hope this helps.

Atty. Chris Liquigan