I am a Filipino—Sen. Alan Cayetano

We received an email from the office of Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano regarding a recent opinion piece published in the online version of a major newspaper questioning his citizenship. 

Cayetano described the article as “malicious,” saying he had both Philippine and American citizenships “by law.”

Cayetano said he is a Filipino, and it is his “only nationality”.

The Senator from Taguig and Pateros acquired both Philippine and American citizenship at birth since he was born to a Filipino father, former Senator Renato “companero” Cayetano, and an American mother, Sandra Schramm.

Because his mother is an American, by both the Constitutions of the Philippines and the United States, he is “both an American and a Filipino” when he was born.

Cayetano said that when he was in college, he asked permission from his father to run as a councilor. He made history in Philippine politics as the youngest and number one councilor in the then-municipality (now city) of Taguig.

Three years later, he was elected Vice Mayor of Taguig, but his official proclamation took place only 10 days before his three-year term of office was due to end.

His frustrating and short-lived tenure as vice mayor in 1998 made him decide to seek a mandate to represent the people of Taguig as a Representative for the lone congressional district of Taguig and Pateros. He won handily.

Sen. Cayetano expressed that, later on, he sought advice from his father because he wanted to renounce his US citizenship. He said that he told his father that it is in the Philippines wherein he wanted to reside, to study, and to work.

Here is Senator Cayetano’s reply to the said opinion piece in full:

“First of all, the basic principle of both journalism and due process is to give the accused a chance to answer.

“Because the publication neither called me nor asked anyone in my office—or just because this was simply a hatchet job -they got so many things in the article wrong.

“No I am not an American Citizen; I never chose to be an American Citizen.

“I am a Filipino, and my only nationality is Filipino.

“It is not true that it is not known what happened with the case filed by former Pateros Mayor Capco. A simple check with the Comelec would show that Comelec decided, with finality, that I am a Natural Born Filipino and qualified to run for and hold public office.

“The ruling stated that, consistent with the Constitution and jurisprudence from the Supreme Court—1) Unlike the other cases mentioned in the malicious article, my case is different (basic law states that different facts lead to a different conclusion)—that I was born a dual Citizen having an American mother and a Filipino father; and (2) that one may be a Natural Born citizen of both countries.

“But even without any legal obligation nor necessity, I gave up my American citizenship because even before I took the Philippine Bar or ran for Congress, I knew I wanted to serve the Filipino people and knew I could only best do that by having no questions to my allegiance—the Philippine Constitution allows dual citizenship but detests dual allegiance; that is why we also passed a dual citizenship law for Filipinos living abroad.

“I am not stateless because unlike others who were Filipino then gave up Filipino citizenship for foreign citizenship therefore losing their Filipino citizenship, I always had both, BUT gave up the foreign citizenship. Again, I never chose to be a US citizen; the reverse is true—I renounced it.

Their research dug up an old case and even a video but they couldn’t send me a text or an email, or give me a call to refute their allegations, they couldn’t even get the result of the Comelec case.

Like many Filipinos, I love the Philippines and love America and its people, but my allegiance and loyalty is and will always be with the Philippines and the Filipino people.

I have dedicated my life, risked my life and sacrificed much for the Philippines. It is my duty and honor to do so.

In the process, I have argued and have gone head on against some of the most powerful people in the country.

At this stage of my public service, I have fully supported President Duterte’s quadruple war on poverty, crime, drugs and corruption. I have also fully supported his independent foreign policy, thus getting the ire of some in the US, some human rights advocates, and of course, the anti-Duterte forces.

That is a small price for me to pay for supporting the President and building a nation.

May God bless the Philippines!