NEW YORK CITY — There has been a continuous increase in the number of naturalized Americans reacquiring their Filipino citizenship, according to an official in the Philippine consulate in New York City.

Ricarte Abejuela, who heads the Legalization Department and Dual Citizenship Section of the consulate, said the surge in former Filipino citizens applying for dual citizenship started during the pandemic.

“We noticed a spike in the petitions for reacquisition of Philippine citizenship during the pandemic because of the Philippine government’s policy that only Filipino citizens would be allowed to [travel] to the Philippines,” Abejuela told reporters during their courtesy call at the consulate.

“Former Filipinos who are now foreigners, in this particular case, US citizens, could not enter the Philippines. It was allowed before under the Balikbayan program but that was suspended,” he said.

In 2021, the Philippine government, through the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging and Infectious Diseases, suspended the Balikbayan program to mitigate the spread of Covid-19 in the country.

“So suddenly these former Filipinos realized that they had to be dual citizens in order to be allowed to enter the Philippines,” Abejuela said.

“That spiked the petitions, and this spike was sustained until the program was opened up again and reinstated,” he added.

The Philippine consulate in New York has jurisdiction over the states of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont.

Although the upward trend in the number of applications for dual citizenship has gradually declined along with the decrease in Covid-19 cases, Abejuela said the number remains high.

“I think this was until 2022. [In] 2023 it lessened a bit but it was still averaging at least for New York around 5,000 a year,” he said.