The Civil Service Commission (CSC) has made an announcement reminding government employees with dual citizenships have until March 2017 to renounce their foreign citizenship. This is based on Memorandum Circular (MC) 23, series 2016 which prohibits dual citizens to work as employees in the government.
With the memorandum, government employees have until March 23, 2017 to relinquish their legal citizenship to another country.
Ariel Ronquillo, CSC Assistant Commissioner, warned:
“If a person fails to renounce the other citizenship then the approval of the appointment will be recalled by the CSC. Recall would actually be the disapproval of the appointment and may result to separation from service.”
Signed by CSC Chairperson Alicia Dela Rosa Bala, the memo reminds everyone that this policy is actually based on Republic Act 9225 or the Citizenship Retention and Re-acquisition Act of 2003.
As the MC 23 tells us:
• A person with dual citizenship should not be appointed to government service until he/she renounces foreign citizenship.
• A person who renounced foreign citizenship who continues to use his/her foreign passport will be denied appointment in public agencies.
• Those occupying posts or are being active in military services of a country where they are naturalized citizens cannot be given the right for any appointment to any Philippine public office.
“You have to have allegiance to the government that you are serving and the allegiance that we are talking about here is 100% allegiance,” Ronquillo remarked.
The Assistant Commissioner, however, pointed out that the said order does not include the presidential appointees – a move that has raised eyebrows and earned mixed reactions from netizens on social media.
Many are questioning renouncing one’s foreign citizenship is necessary towards becoming an effective government employee. Also, some are crying foul over the fact that the order does not cover presidential appointees.