Comments on: A question of allegiance

By: justice league

justice league — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 07:29:10 +0000

Last year, Speaker Nograles implied that he wanted Cha-Cha to enable overseas Filipinos to invest back here. The article further stated that “Nograles surmised that even a minimum of $1,000 investment for every US-based Filipino migrant would be substantial to fuel the country’s economic engine”. (Philstar article “House wants Cha-cha to deal with financial crisis”)

In a discussion with another poster in another blog, I stated that we don’t need to revise the Charter just for that.

My idea was based on the premise of dual citizenship. Filipinos who happen to be citizens of other countries definitely still enjoy the same investment rights/privilege as any other Filipino.

By: Chino F.

Chino F. — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 07:53:48 +0000

Personal choice is always the last arbiter…

By: Joe America

Joe America — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 23:19:03 +0000

J_ag,

Nice perspective, again. It is amazing how the US “culture” assimilates various ethnicities. The “American” — white former service guy — you typically see in the Philippines is far from the “American” you typically see in Los Angeles, which has perhaps the most diverse population in the planet. Take the gastrointestinal tour of the ethnic restaurants in LA and you will see that “white” America is rather small; yet the respect for laws and order pervades all . . . well, excepting a hoodlum or white collar ponzi specialist now and then.

I think the Philippines struggles too much with the Filipino identity and ought to simply abandon any notion of homogenous society and get on with welcoming talent and investment of any stripe.

Joe

By: domingo arong

domingo arong — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 07:16:36 +0000

Fonte should have also mentioned the unique case of the allegiance of Filipinos born during the American territorial period.

Chief Justice Fuller in Fourteen Diamond Rings (1901) opined:

“The Philippines thereby ceased, in the language of the treaty … to be foreign country. They came under the complete and absolute sovereignty and dominion of the United States, and so became territory of the United States over which civil government could be established. The result was the same although there was no stipulation that the native inhabitants should be incorporated into the body politic, and none securing to them the right to choose their nationality. Their allegiance became due to the United States, and they became entitled to its protection.”

In other words, “although there was no stipulation” in the 1898 Treaty of Paris that Filipinos “should be incorporated into the body politic, and none securing to them the right to choose their nationality,” to Chief Justice Fuller–

“The result was the same … Their allegiance became due to the United States, and they became entitled to its protection.”

What this means, of course, is that Filipinos born in what was then regarded as the “unincorporated territory” of the Philippine Islands during the American territorial period owed allegiance to the United States at birth; otherwise, Filipinos born in the Philippine Islands during that period would have been BORN STATELESS, without any country to call their own, and to owe allegiance to, at birth.

What is significant here is that, in U.S. v. Rhodes (1866), as cited in U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark (1898):

“All persons born in the allegiance of the United States are natural-born citizens. Birth and allegiance go together.”

By: Bencard

Bencard — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 02:41:24 +0000

dream on. he’s worst than carter.

By: Ben K

Ben K — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 02:30:46 +0000

You mean, they don’t need the answers you don’t want to hear. All right then. Keep up the lunacy, and the Democrats will keep the White House until 2016.

By: Bencard

Bencard — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 02:22:05 +0000

are you looking at the mirror while saying that, dude? i don’t know about you but i am not a “hack”. btw, your “profound” question need no answer. obama is messing up the country, right here, right now. bush is history, therefore, not relevant. leave him alone.

By: Ben K

Ben K — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 01:48:41 +0000

Spin and obfuscation from a typical mindless right-wing hack. Two simple questions, PAL. You got answers, or not?

By: Bencard

Bencard — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 22:53:19 +0000

great research, upnstude.

By: UP n grad

UP n grad — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 22:39:19 +0000

GabbyD: Just look to the past years to answer your question. Double-check the incidents and interpret to your heart’s desire:
(1) Week of Nine-Eleven : as USA airports were getting closed, a special flight was approved for members of Bin Laden clan to leave USA;
(2) months after 09/11 were chaotic, and then the identity of the 09/11 perpetrators were revealed. Take as long as you can — how many houses owned by Arab, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs (South-Asians do look alike) were torched? Note: I do know there were Sikhs who were attacked. You’ll have to cite your source, though, if you say that over twenty South-Asians were killed by USA mobs;
(3) Homeland Security was created as airport-security was tightened. Very quickly, the ACLU and other civil-liberties organizations started to protest against profiling;
(4) Homeland “do-not-fly” List was put in place. “Dual-citizenship” was apparently a minor criteria, if at all. Stopped from boarding planes included Senator Kennedy from Massachusetts;
(5) USA did tighten the criteria for entry into the USA and affected were practically ALL — including Pakistanis, Bangladesh, India, China, Thai, Filipinos, Indonesians, Africans, Eastern and Western Europe, too — except Australia, England, Denmark; the admittance-criteria keeps getting updated every year;
(6) Homeland Security/Immigration started tightening up. Filipinos from California, Illinois, others with felonies or improper VISA-paperwork saw themselves arrested and put on a plane to be returned to the Philippines; same situation for Indonesians, Mexicans, other nationalities. For supremo, Amadeo, the Ca t and others with “clean” papers — no problemo. Bencard and Abe Margallo’s kids — FilAm’s natural-born US citizens — no problemo (and some enlisted in the Army, National Guard, etcetera);
(7) Two US citizens were caught fighting for the Taliban — John Walker Lindh (Caucasian; born in Washington DC) and Hamdi (born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and shortly thereafter raised in Saudi Arabia by his parents). Lindh found guilty; currently in US Federal prison – 20-plus years sentence. Hamdi — allowed to return to Saudi Arabia on condition that he renounce his US citizenship;
(5) Homeland Security then, as now, hunts for terrorists or terrorist-sympathizers inside USA territory and among those arrested to-date include Jose Padilla (US citizen; Latino-American born in Brooklyn); the Buffalo Six (Yemeni-Americans); Liberty Six for a plot to blow up the Sears Tower, Chicago; a group in North Carolina recently arrested, led by 39 year-old Daniel Patrick Boyd;

Also arrested in past 3 years was an American couple spying for Cuba; others spying for Mainland China.

(6) The Aragoncillo-treason-arrest was about A FilAm spying in the White House. Love-for-Pilipinas was NOT the reason for Aragoncillo’s actions.