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Negros Oriental Rep. Jocelyn Limkaichong is not the
first official of foreign parentage whose citizenship has come under
legal question. And she probably won’t be the last—thanks to
antiquated laws, which have their roots in the country’s
oppressive colonial past.
Former congressman Jacinto
Paras’s wife, Olivia—whom Limkaichong bested in the last
election by a margin of 7,000 votes—has filed a disqualification
case claiming that the congresswoman is a Chinese national
because, as Paras alleges, her father, Julio Ong Sy, did not acquire
Filipino citizenship.
But the congresswoman’s
lawyers, led by Pete Cuadra, point out that by the time Limkaichong
was born in 1959, her father was already a naturalized citizen of
the Philippines.
As of last report, the case Paras
brought against Limkaichong was still pending in the Supreme Court.
Whatever the outcome, however, the time has obviously come to
abolish certain citizenship requirements unjustly imposed on those
who wish to serve in government.
Limkaichong, for instance, was
born and raised in the Philippines —but because her father came
from another country, her citizenship and by extension her
allegiance are vulnerable to legal question.
Ironically, time and again it has
been shown that many inhabitants of this country who are
foreign-born or foreign-descended have turned out to be more
patriotic, more socially involved, more economically productive and,
I dare say, more Filipino than certain so-called full-blooded
natives—who readily take the first flight out of the country at
the slightest hint of difficulty.
The jus sanguinis principle that
decides citizenship, for one, is obsolete. It is rooted in the US
colonial era when the country’s American overlords imposed the
abominable Chinese Exclusion Act on these islands to regulate the
Chinese migration. Ironically, in their own country the Americans
follow the more democratic principle of jus soli.
The foreign-born or descended in
our midst might be part-Chinese, part-Indian, part-Spanish,
part-American or part-whatever. But by their contributions to the
nation, they have shown themselves to be all-Filipino.
And while the powers that be seem
inclined to amend the Constitution, they might as well revisit the
charter’s antiquated citizenship provisions.
Save Manila Bay
Unless plans miscarry, the
Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) under
Secretary Lito Atienza is set to start demolishing fish pens and
fish cages that now dot the southern portion of Manila Bay. The
demolition is part of Atienza’s ongoing campaign to remove all
illegal constructions, which over the years have led to the steady
ecological destruction of the world-famous bay.
The campaign, which has drawn the
support of local authorities of cities and towns that border Manila
Bay, also targets the removal of all illegal obstructions in the
rivers, streams, marshes, estuaries and other bodies of water
connected to the bay.
In a recent huddle with newsmen,
the former three-term Manila mayor said he is focusing as well on
the main cause of pollution in the bay, i.e., the absence of waste
treatment facilities that the capital region’s water
concessionaires should have erected decades ago.
Raw sewage, mostly from households,
is dumped directly to canals, creeks and rivers that empty into the
bay. Equally revolting is the fact that the customers of these water
concessionaires are regularly billed for services, which include
nonexistent sewage treatment, Atienza pointed out.
It is, thus, no surprise that
Atienza should welcome a class suit filed against the DENR and other
agencies before the Supreme Court by an environmental group, which
has been pressing both local and national officials for the
immediate rehabilitation of Manila Bay.
The DENR chief said he even
congratulated the group, claiming that he shares its goal to restore
the bay’s water quality to “SB” qualification, which would
make it suitable for swimming, diving, fishing and other forms of
water recreation.
In the class suit, Atienza
likened himself to a fish thrown into the ocean as he too is
determined to return the bay to its former pristine state.
A native of the Philippine
capital, Atienza evidently takes great pride in being an authentic
Manileño. For the benefit of the younger newsmen in the huddle, he
recalled “growing up beside the bay, with its brilliant deep-blue
and aquamarine sheen—which has now been made black and murky as a
result of mindless pollution brought about by decades of neglect and
apathy.”
Atienza began serving—to borrow
a phrase from the late National Artist Nick Joaquin, who also styled
himself as Quijano de Manila—“the city of my affections” as
barangay tanod, or volunteer neighborhood watchman, to become the
only Manila mayor elected to three consecutive terms, when he began
developing the tourism and other economic potential of Manila Bay.
Earlier, as two-term vice mayor,
Atienza shepherded the passage of City Ordinance 777, which banned
any form of reclamation in that part of the bay spanning the US
Embassy compound and the Manila Yacht Club marina. It is this
stretch of the bay that to this day somehow helps Filipinos—and
foreign visitors—get an idea of the bay’s old glory, including
what many travelers describe as one of the world’s most beautiful
sunsets.
It was this advocacy, the DENR
chief added, that inspired him to initiate the relocation of
Pandacan oil depots, which should eventually remove the oil
companies’ tankers and barges that continue to pollute Pasig River
, which flows out into Manila Bay.
dansoy26@yahoo.com
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