MANILA, Philippines – Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said on Tuesday, August 28, that the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) is considering scrapping the $50 (P2,600) oath-taking fee for those who want to reacquire their Filipino citizenship.

The DFA was addressing a proposal by Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, who authored a 2003 law on citizenship reacquisition.

“We are considering the comment and proposal of former Senate president Drilon to remove the fee for the oath-taking,” Cayetano said during the DFA’s budget hearing at the Senate on Tuesday. 

He cited an “experiment” by Philippine Ambassador to Spain Philippe Jones Lhuillier, who, for a month, shouldered the oath-taking fees of overseas Filipinos. “Inabonohan niya, dumoble o tumriple ang nag-apply (He paid for it, and the applicants doubled or tripled),” Cayetano said.

Senator Loren Legarda said of Drilon’s proposal, “We consider it adopted as of this hearing.”

Drilon had proposed scrapping this so-called allegiance fee even for the 2018 budget. His proposed provision was included in the 2018 budget, but it was vetoed by President Rodrigo Duterte.

Drilon explained: “How much do we earn out of this? Very negligible. But this is one of the disincentives for our compatriots to become Filipino citizens.”

He criticized the justification for the earlier veto – “that it will result in a loss of revenue.” He said, “My goodness gracious, how much revenue?”

“In this case, the goodwill generated is certainly much more in value than what we earn,” Drilon said.

In November 2017, Drilon had urged the DFA to stop collecting so-called allegiance fees from Filipinos who want to reacquire their Philippine citizenship. The DFA said it is not an “allegiance fee” but a “one-time fee for the processing of the application” for dual citizenship. – Rappler.com 

P53.36 = $1