A Filipino-American is asking the Court of Appeals to allow his release after six years in detention and to declare him as a Filipino citizen.
Walter Manuel Prescott, 71, represented by the Public Attorney’s Office, maintained he is not an alien, but is a natural-born citizen of a Filipino mother, Hilda Fernandez.
He questioned the Nov. 28, 2013 decision of then-Justice Secretary Leila de Lima revoking his reacquisition of his Filipino citizenship on the complaint of his former wife, Maria Lourdes Dingcong, for alleged misrepresentation and fraud.
Prescott said he was never given the chance to defend himself and was never informed about the complaint.
De Lima’s resolution is “null and void” for violating his constitutionally enshrined right to due process, Prescott said.
“Petitioner-appellant most respectfully and most humbly pleads for compassion and justice in the resolution of this case; for only the Court, at this point, may rectify the serious constitutional transgressions of the former Department of Justice officials,” the 24-page very urgent motion for reconsideration read.
“When the 1973 Constitution took effect, petitioner-appellant became a Filipino citizen by operation of the highest law of the land,” PAO Chief Persida Rueda-Acosta said.
“Finally, and most importantly, there would be a grave and irreparable injustice and irreversible fatal consequences in deporting a 71-year-old sickly man who cannot withstand long travel, whose deportation is clearly baseless, unjust and illegal,” the motion stated.
Prescott, a former World Bank employee, renounced his US citizenship after his retirement and applied for reacquisition of his Filipino citizenship, which was approved.
His Filipina wife, whom he was divorced, then filed a deportation case against him for allegedly falsifying his application for naturalization.
De Lima ordered Prescott’s deportation and had him jailed for six years for trumped-up charges, which he said he never committed.
