SET rejects bid to disqualify Erwin Tulfo over US citizenship
Senate Blue Ribbon Committee Chairman Erwin Tulfo speaks to the media after the meeting with Ombudsman Jesus Crispin "Boying" Remulla and Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian at the Office of the ombudsman on Friday, 7 August 2026. The meeting covered the planned turnover of the committee’s flood control probe documents to the Ombudsman. The entire panel is set to meet to facilitate the turnover, with the Ombudsman’s office taking over matters concerning flood control.
Analy Labor for the Daily Tribune
The Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) on Friday denied a renewed petition seeking to unseat Senator Erwin Tulfo over questions regarding his citizenship by a 6-3 vote.
The decision follows the filing of a motion for reconsideration by the petitioner, disbarred lawyer Berteni Causing, which sought to reverse the tribunal’s 2 March resolution.
The previous resolution dismissed Causing’s quo warranto petition against Tulfo on grounds of “insufficiency in form.”
In dismissing the motion, the tribunal ruled that the petition was noncompliant with the 2020 rules set by the SET, as it was filed outside the prescribed period.
Causing questioned Tulfo’s eligibility to hold a public post, citing controversy about his citizenship, lack of qualifications, and his being part of a political dynasty.
He accused Tulfo of “disloyalty to the Philippines and allegiance to the United States,” the same grounds he cited when he filed multiple disqualification cases against the lawmaker as early as the senatorial campaign period for the 2025 polls.
The Commission on Elections subsequently dismissed the petitions.
Tulfo had faced accusations of identity theft in the US. He previously admitted that he became an American citizen in the late 1980s but claimed that he had already renounced it before he assumed the post of DSWD secretary in 2022.
He was twice bypassed by the Commission on Appointments over a similar issue in the same year. Tulfo later became a member of the House of Representatives, replacing then-ACT-CIS Rep. Jeffrey Soriano, who vacated the seat.
An October 2022 document allegedly from the US Embassy claimed that Tulfo faked his identity under the name “Erich Sylvester Tulfo,” who was reportedly born in Hawaii on 30 December 1965, to obtain an American passport/citizen.
In the same letter, the embassy informed "Erich Sylvester Tulfo” that his US passport had already been revoked.
In January 2025, Tulfo admitted that he was once a TNT (tago nang tago) or undocumented immigrant in the US, where he stay for at least 10 years.
Tulfo claimed that he went to the US in 1986 on a tourist visa and worked various jobs to provide for his family, though he did not directly address the allegations of faking US citizenship.