Could Yasay have been telling the truth?

Singapore—Rejected foreign secretary-nominee Perfecto Yasay’s former US citizenship was explained in a one-page, jargon-free document the Inquirer uploaded last Feb. 27. Yet we frustratingly debated this for weeks—despite evidence in plain sight—until the Commission on Appointments rejected Yasay on March 6.

After Sen. Grace Poe’s citizenship was challenged last year, we scrutinized her US certificate of loss of nationality (CLN). This one-page US State Department document is the clearest evidence that, first, one was a US citizen, and second, one renounced this, effective on a stated date.

Poe’s CLN is on the internet. It proves she was a dual citizen but lost US citizenship on Oct. 21, 2010, when she joined our government.

Yasay’s CLN proves he was a naturalized US citizen until June 28, 2016, when he renounced this at the US Embassy in Manila.

There is no interpretation, clarification or context. There is no debate, whether legal, political or philosophical.

The CLN simply says what it says.

The endless legalese was all irrelevant. Joining the New York Bar is irrelevant since Filipino citizens like me can be members. US Internal Revenue Service bulletins are irrelevant because a tax authority does not determine citizenship.

Even Yasay’s denial that he had a US passport became irrelevant after the Inquirer uploaded the actual CLN.

But why did Yasay claim his naturalization “is flawed and defective” because he had a “preconceived intent” of returning to the Philippines?

The short explanation? This is irrelevant.

His CLN states he was a US citizen until June 28, 2016, as far as the US government is concerned. This is the only opinion that counts.

The long explanation?

Section 340 of the US Immigration and Nationality Act allows a US court to cancel naturalization obtained through misrepresentation. One’s US citizenship would never have happened if canceled this way.

Does the sad story in Yasay’s CLN fit Section 340?

It states Yasay moved to the United States in February 1978 “to flee the repressive regime of Marcos.”

He was naturalized on Nov. 24, 1986, after the Edsa Revolution. He left the United States on Jan. 8, 1987, six weeks later.

Before his naturalization, he visited his liberated motherland and “made the decision to return to the Philippines and establish my residence thereat at a propitious time in the near future.”

Shortly before joining our Securities and Exchange Commission in 1993, he mailed an affidavit to the US Immigration and Naturalization Service. This claimed he was not qualified when he became naturalized. The US government did not reply.

In 2016, he renounced his US citizenship. The US consul recorded his statement that this was “in furtherance, reiteration and confirmation” of the 1993 affidavit.

These facts pose four problems.

First, one is required to reside in the United States before—not after—naturalization. As a citizen, one can leave and never return.

Second, one does not change residence merely by thinking about it. Remember how Poe had to explain how she packed all her children’s toys into a shipping container, bought a house in the Philippines and enrolled her children in Philippine schools?

Third, the term “preconceived intent” is typically used in a different context, such as getting a US nonimmigrant visa despite a hidden intent to stay permanently, such as to marry a US citizen.

Fourth, the United States did not accept Yasay’s theory. Otherwise, the CLN would be effective 1986, erasing his US citizenship.

I sympathize with Yasay’s regret over becoming a US citizen after the Edsa euphoria. But there is no emotion or politics in reading the one-page CLN.

The point is that we readily accept incriminating recordings and money trails, but must not ignore one-page legal documents.

As for Yasay, our dual citizenship law was passed only in 2003. Thus, he lost Philippine citizenship in 1986 when he was naturalized in the United States, then renounced US citizenship in 2016.

Fortunately, the 2003 law allows him to reacquire the citizenship of his birth anytime. Our nation of migrants welcomes its prodigals.

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