A lawyer and former Immigration chief said ABS-CBN chairman emeritus Eugenio “Gabby” Lopez III is Filipino– but also acknowledged he was an American citizen.
Cagayan De Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez came to Lopez’s defense amid questions on his citizenship as Congress deliberates on ABS-CBN’s franchise application.
In a statement Thursday (May 28), Rodriguez said Lopez, ABS-CBN’s former president, “is a Filipino citizen from the beginning.”
“Since he was born in the United States in 1952, he was, under US law, an American citizen by virtue of his birth on American soil. He was also a Filipino, since his parents were both Filipinos,” Rodriguez said.
“The fact is that, when he was born, both his parents were Filipinos. So he was automatically a Filipino by birth under the 1935 Constitution, which was the Charter applicable then,” he added.
Rodriguez, who filed a bill granting ABS-CBN a new franchise, said Lopez remains a Filipino “unless he had renounced such citizenship and chose to be an American.”
Under the 1987 Constitution, media companies must be fully owned by Filipino citizens.
Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)
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