PCGNY.net | News Release

DUAL CITIZENS CAN VOTE EVEN WITHOUT RESIDENCY REQUIREMENT,
RULES RP SUPREME COURT

PHILIPPINE CONSULATE - NEWS RELEASE
10 August 2006

NEW YORK -- Clearing the last hurdle for dual citizens to be able to vote in future Philippine national elections, the Philippine Supreme Court ruled on 4 August 2006 that dual citizens or “those who retain or re-acquire Philippine citizenship under R.A. 9225 may exercise the right to vote under the system of absentee voting . . . .” In coming up with the historic decision, the High Court held that “there is no provision in the dual citizenship law – R.A. 9225 – requiring ‘duals’ to actually establish residence and physically reside in the Philippines first before they can exercise the right to vote.”

With this positive development, New York Consul General Cecilia Rebong issued an urgent call for all those who have applied for dual citizenship to register for overseas absentee voting at the Philippine Consulate General in New York on or before the registration deadline of August 31, 2006. Rebong clarified that only those who register as overseas absentee voters may vote as such during the next Philippine national elections which is scheduled on May 2007. Rebong expressed hope that dual citizens will register in droves towards the end days of the registration period now that the Philippine Supreme has removed the last impediment to the exercise of their right of suffrage.

It will be recalled that before the May 2004 Philippine national elections, many former Filipinos in the United States applied for dual citizenship in the hopes of being able to participate in the said electoral exercise. Mrs. Loida Nicolas-Lewis was one of them. These Filipinos ended up greatly disappointed when on 23 September 2003, the Philippine Commission on Elections advised the Philippine Embassy and the other Philippine Foreign Service Posts in the United States that “dual citizens have yet no right to vote in such elections owing to their lack of the one-year residence requirement prescribed by the Constitution.” The said “residency requirement “ can be found in Section 1, Article V, of the 1987 Philippine Constitution and provides, as follows:

“SECTION 1. Suffrage may be exercised by all citizens of the Philippines not otherwise disqualified by law, who are at least eighteen years of age, and who shall have resided in the Philippines for at least one year and in the place wherein they propose to vote for at least six months immediately preceding the election. . . .” (Underscoring supplied)

Faced with the prospect of not being able to vote in the May 2004 elections, Mrs. Lewis and several other affected parties filed a petition before the Philippine Supreme Court. Their petition had paid off in this favorable ruling by the High Court. Accordingly, former Filipinos who register on or before August 21, 2006 as dual citizens may vote in the May 2007 elections without having to comply with the residency requirement prescribed by the Constitution for regular voters.