WHEN Sen. Grace Poe delivered her speech Wednesday at the UP Bahay ng Alumni in Quezon City during the launching of her candidacy for president in the 2016 elections, this line made me uncomfortable: “I Am Grace Poe, Filipino.” It’s a line I wished she should not have included in her speech. I could sense a tinge of fakery and hypocrisy there.
In 2001, Poe took an oath of allegiance to the United States of America and thus renounced her being Filipino:
“I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God."
That was ten years after she married Neil Llamanzares, who has dual citizenship (Filipino and American), and left for the US to start a family. Which was, at first glance, a legitimate act, one that millions of other Filipinos have done. By the way, I have relatives who are now American citizens but whose heart still beat for the Philippines.
What made Poe different, though, is that she is the adopted daughter of movie king Fernando Poe Jr. and actress Susan Roces. She is among the wealthy families in this country and therefore could still live a life of opulence even if she does not renounce her being Filipino. So unlike my relatives who didn’t have much of a choice.
That the Llamanzares family had a choice was proven after FPJ died in 2004. The family returned to the Philippines and started a life here. Her three children enrolled in local schools. In 2006, her husband landed a job at the San Miguel Corp. That same year Poe, for one reason or another, worked to reacquire her Filipino citizenship.
I don’t really know how Poe or the other Filipinos felt when, at one time in their lives, they took their oath of allegiance to the US and declared to “absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity” to the Philippines. But considering how the value of the word “loyalty” has diminished with globalization, maybe Poe didn’t feel anything. Which brings us to her wanting to be president of this land.
As I said before, an electoral campaign is brutal. When Noynoy Aquino ran for president in 2010, a fake document was circulated claiming he was autistic. In the same vein, citizenship, and by extension Poe’s loyalty to the country, would be among the issues that will hound her during the campaign and beyond. Unlike the autistic issue tacked on PNoy, however, that Poe once renounced this country is true.
Imagine this: If by chance Poe becomes president, this would be the first time that four out of five members of the First Family would be Americans (I reckon Poe’s husband and her three children have retained their American citizenship). To borrow a question raised by veteran journalist Ma. Ceres Doyo of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, “What if she were president, and US and Philippine interests clashed?”
(khanwens@gmail.com)