SC affirms Vergara citizenship ruling

The Supreme Court has upheld the 2019 decision of the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal dismissing the election protest filed against Nueva Ecija’s 3rd District Rep. Rosanna “Ria” Vergara allegedly for being an American citizen, thus not qualified to be a member of Congress.

In a decision penned by Associate Justice Alfredo Benjamin Caquioa, the SC dismissed the petition filed by Philip Hernandez Piccio and the intervention lodged by Aurelio Matias Umali against the HRET ruling.

The SC declared that Vergara, who won in the 2016 congressional election and was re-elected in 2019, had proved her full compliance of Republic Act No. 9225 or the Citizenship Retention and Acquisition Act of 2003, which states that “natural-born citizens of the Philippines who become citizens of another country shall be deemed not to have lost their Philippine citizenship.”

“In sum, there is overwhelming competent evidence proving Vergara’s compliance with R.A. 9225 (which states that ‘natural-born citizens of the Philippines who become citizens of another country shall be deemed not to have lost their Philippine citizenship’) for the re-acquisition of her Philippine citizenship,” the SC ruled.

According to the SC, the evidence on record shows that Vergara duly re-acquired her Philippine Citizenship pursuant to RA 9225.

The tribunal stressed that a natural-born Filipino citizen, who has lost his Filipino citizenship by reason of naturalization abroad, may qualify to run for elective public office in Philippines provided that he or she must re-acquire Philippine citizenship by taking an oath of allegiance to the Republic of the Philippines, and that he or she must make a personal and sworn renunciation of his foreign citizenship.

The SC sided with the HRET findings that Vergara had complied with the two requisites under RA 9225.

The high court said that as correctly found by the HRET, Vergara had duly reacquired her Philippine citizenship by observing the requirements of the law, foremost of which is the taking of the Oath of Allegiance.

It stressed that Vergara’s presentation of the original copy of her IC (identification certificate) No. 06-12955, the existence and genuineness of which were not contested, is prima facie proof that she complied with the requirements of RA 9225 and its implementing rules to re-acquire her Philippine citizenship.

One of such requirements is the submission of two original copies of her duly-executed Oath of Allegiance.

Court records showed that Vergara was born to Filipino parents on Nov. 5, 1963 in Manila and in 1994, she moved to Cabanatuan City where she married and later established a family home.

In 1998, she moved to the United States of America, obtained a Certificate of Naturalization as an American citizen, and was thereby issued an American passport.

In 2006, Vergara filed with the Philippine Bureau of Immigration (BI) a Petition for the Issuance of an Identification Certificate (IC) pursuant to RA 9225 for the retention/reacquisition of Philippine citizenship.

She also took her Oath of Allegiance to the Republic of the Philippines as part of the documentary requirements supporting her RA 9225 petition.

On Nov.30, 2006, she was issued IC No. 06-12955 having re-acquired her Philippine citizenship. She subsequently executed an Affidavit of Renunciation of Foreign Citizenship dated Sept. 4, 2015.

Vergara then filed her certificate of candidacy for the House of Representatives in the 2016 elections in Nueva Ecija and won.