ManilaTimes-June 8
A retired Supreme Court justice declared that ABS-CBN Corp. Chairman Emeritus Eugenio Gabriel Lopez 3rd cannot own or manage a media company, which is supposed to be 100 percent pure Filipino-owned because the 1987 Constitution never mentioned dual citizens. In a statement, retired justice Noel Tijam argued that Article 4 of the 1987 Constitution listed those who are Filipino citizens but never mentioned anything about dual citizens. Tijam, an incumbent member of the Judicial and Bar Council representing the Academe, said a constitutionalist like United States Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia had declared that if the framers of a constitution never mentioned about it, then it was not supposed to be there. He added that the reason is clear that the Philippines did not mention dual citizens in the Constitution because it would have no control over citizenship laws of foreign jurisdiction. Hence, the Philippines cannot control the loyalty and allegiance of Lopez because he can serve two masters of his own choice. Tijam criticized Lopez for showing allegiance to the US after his admission before the House of Representatives that he voted during the US presidential elections in 2016, which was the battle between US President Donald Trump and former US secretary of state Hilary Clinton. Lopez also belatedly applied for a Filipino passport after 50 years of using a US passport.
Read more at: https://www.manilatimes.net/2020/06/08/news/headlines/dual-citizens-barred-from-owning-media/730197/
