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THE Department of Foreign Affairs has informed us that ten
Filipino-Japanese children born out of wedlock to Filipino mothers
and Japanese fathers were granted the right to Japanese nationality
by the Japanese Supreme Court. In a landmark ruling on June 4 the
Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional a provision in the Japanese
Nationality Law that states that such children can only become
citizens of the mother’s home country.
The information comes from Philippine Ambassador
to Japan Domingo L. Siazon Jr. who welcomed the SC ruling as a step
towards improving the plight of thousands of Filipino-Japanese
children.
Expressing hope that the registration process
can be done soon and quickly, Siazon said: “I also hope that the
Filipino mothers of these children may also be allowed to come to
Japan to be with their children in their formative years and assist
in their education.”
The children, aged between 8 and 14, were born
out of wedlock and recognized by their Japanese fathers only after
they were born. Under Japanese laws, a Japanese father has to step
forward in order for a child to be deemed Japanese.
The Filipino mothers and their children, aided
by Japanese lawyers led by Hironori Kondo, went through a long legal
battle. After filing suit in 2003, the Tokyo District Court ruled in
their favor in a 2005 decision, acknowledging that the clause found
in the Nationality Law “obstructs the constitutional right to
equality” that put the plaintiffs at “an immense
disadvantage.”
However, the Tokyo High Court overturned the
District Court’s ruling on grounds that the Nationality Law is
justified and does not interfere with the constitutional right to
equality. The High Court ruled that the decision to grant
nationality is “an inherent right of the State,” and that it did
not have the authority to confer nationality to the children.
In overturning the High Court’s decision, the
Supreme Court ruled that the provision in the law resulted in
“discrimination without any rational reason” and thus violated
Article 14 of the Japanese Constitution, which stipulates equality
under the law.
In finding unlawful the clause requiring that
the parents be married, the ruling stated, “The disadvantages
caused to the children by this biased treatment cannot be
disregarded.”
Such children face an “identity crisis,”
said Rieko Ito, general secretary of the Citizens’ Network for
Japanese-Filipino. These children can receive welfare as long as
they have residential status but will not have the right to vote as
adults.
According to the plaintiff’s lawyer, officials
of the Ministry of Justice and the Diet are expected to hold a
meeting and to begin talks on revising the Nationality Law to grant
full citizenship to children with similar backgrounds, estimated to
number in the tens of thousands in Japan and in the Philippines.
This development is a breakthrough in a
xenophobic society. The Japanese are wary towards foreigners, even
to their kind who were born and raised overseas. The treatment of
Korean-Japanese who have lived and worked in Japan since the end of
World War Two has raised human rights concerns. It was only recently
that Japan recognized the Ainu people, the aborigines who have lived
on the mainland for centuries.
Thousands of Filipino children born to Japanese
and Filipino parents grew up in Davao and Baguio where Japanese
farmers and construction workers pioneered in development work in
the 1920s and 1930s. The court ruling may no longer apply to them
but those born recently may benefit from Japan’s Supreme Court
decision, opening doors to the labor-starved economy whose
population is declining precipitously.
Baggage weight and the ‘padala’ system
THE bad news is that the Philippine Airlines
will cut down on the free check-in baggage on its North America
service to keep costs down amid rising fuel prices.
Currently, passengers are allowed 70 pounds for
free. The new weight cap will start July 1.
Major US carriers have gone even further and are
now charging passengers for check-in baggage. American, United and
US Air have started charging their economy-class passengers $15 each
way for the first checked-in baggage and $25 for the second. Delta,
Northwest and Continental charge only $25 for the second bag.
The new rule will upset Filipino passengers but
it will discipline them into carrying only the most essential items
in their baggage. Pinoys traveling to and from the US are well known
for lugging several pieces of balikbayan boxes and fully packed
suitcases. The joke is that you can tell if a passenger is a
Filipino because he carries tons of boxes and luggages.
What compounds the problem is the practice of
friends and relatives to ask a passenger to carry “padala” or
“pabilin” items for kin and friends to the US. These consist
mostly of personal items that could range from food items to woolen
blankets. It’s impolite to turn down these requests.
Every Filipino passenger carries a “padala”
item, which is a way of remembering or thanking someone in “the
states.” Sometimes the traveler gets into trouble for unknowingly
bringing a banned item or a DVD that is not properly receipted. The
new baggage rule is a good excuse to turn down requests for “padala.”
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