Jessica and Grace

In 2012, Jessica Sanchez, a young Filipino-Mexican-American singing sensation became a runner-up of a US reality show, “America Got Talent.” Sanchez, the 16 year old teenager, was born in California of a Filipina mother and a Mexican-American father.  She and her two brothers were raised in the US where they lived like any regular American kids. 

During the initial elimination rounds, however, Sanchez garnered the lowest number of votes from the audience which could have had her being eliminated from the contest.  Yet she remained in the show.  She so impressed the judges of her performance that they applied the “Judges Save” provision of the contest thus vetoing the votes of the audience.  Learning from that experience, she started to package herself as a Filipina-Mexican-American in order to woe the votes of the Filipino and the Mexican audiences.

Was Jessica Sanchez a Filipino?  This was a question that I posed to the students of my class in Rizal in a local college in the city.  (At that time, my students and I thought that Sanchez was born in the Philippines with both Filipino parents; that she went to the US as a young girl; and that her mother remarried to a Mexican-American).  Most of my students then said that she was definitely a Filipino and even a natural born Filipino.  Instead of proceeding with the discussion that I started, I let the issue hang without commenting.  That question was just an introduction for the lesson of the day.

The lesson for the day was about the genealogy of Dr. Jose Rizal, our national hero.  Rizal’s maternal great great grandfather was a certain Eugenio Ursua who was of Japanese ancestry.  His paternal great great grandfather was a certain Domingo Lamco, a full bloodied Chinese who became a Christian and adopted Mercado as his family name.  Tracing down his ancestry further, we learned that Rizal (and his siblings) only had 42.5% Filipino blood.  It is no wonder then that in his travels in many parts of the world, Rizal was oftentimes mistaken for Japanese or a Chinese.  Despite his looks, though, most Filipinos would assert that he was the first Filipino and the greatest that ever lived.  So where did his being a Filipino come from? His being a Filipino came from his heart!

The young Jessica Sanchez looked every inch a Filipino but did she ever felt like she was one?  It was obviously that she did not.  She only identified herself as Filipino when she needed it in her quest for stardom.  But we cannot blame her.  She was a young woman of sixteen summers.  Would America be offended when she said that she was of Filipino or Mexican?  Of course not, she remained American all the while!

Today, we remember Jessica Sanchez who portrayed herself as a Filipino in her quest for personal glory.  We associate her with Grace Poe who also wanted to portray herself as a natural born Filipino citizen also in pursuit of her quest for personal glory – to fulfill her dream of becoming the President of the Philippines in continuance of her adoptive father’s failed dream of becoming President himself.  One upon a time, Grace Poe was a Filipino renegade who abandoned his native land and took allegiance in another country.  She was not like the many Filipinos who left to escape poverty.  She was rich and had all the material things that she can wish for.  She was mature enough when she made the choice.  She did not love the Philippines enough so she abandoned her Filipino citizenship.   

I wonder why in the many arguments against the citizenship of Grace Poe, nobody ever invoked the provisions of the highest law of the land, the Philippine Constitution.  As I mentioned in my previous article, Sec 2, Article 4 (Citizenship) of the 1987 constitution defines what a natural born Filipino citizen is.  It says that: “Natural born citizens are those who are citizens of the Philippines from birth without having to perform any act to acquire or perfect their Philippine citizenship.”  Of her own free will and accord, Grace Poe renounced her Filipino citizenship to embrace the citizenship of her husband.  When she reacquired her Filipino citizenship, she performed a legal act.  Therefore by definition and the circumstances surrounding her case, she is now a naturalized Filipino citizen even if she can prove that she was a natural born citizen from the beginning.

So why is it so important that the President of the Philippines, the Vice President, the Senators and the Representatives should be natural born Filipino citizens? Let me quote former Justice Isagani Cruz of the Supreme Court.  He said: “The citizen of the Philippines must take pride in his status and cherish this priceless gift.  For sure he has the right to renounce the Philippines as he sees fit and transfer allegiance to a state with more allurements for him.  But having done so, he cannot expect to be welcomed back with open arms once his taste for his adopted country turns sour….  Citizenship is not a cheap commodity that can easily be recovered after its renunciation…..Hence, even if one’s naturalization (in another country) was later annulled, the subsequent development will not and cannot erase the fact that of his own free will and by his mature and deliberate choice, he expressly and forever renounced his allegiance to the Republic.  Renunciation is not a pro forma act.  It is a flat and absolute rejection of one’s former country, made in all sincerity and under oath, with the solemn resolve to cut off all political ties with and to withdraw one’s loyalty from it in favor of the new sovereign.  The petitioner who took such a step, cannot now say that he really did not mean it when he rejected the Philippines and renounced all his allegiance to this republic”

Jessica Sanchez was an American citizen by fate who wanted to appear Filipino to support her quest for stardom.  Yet, she never renounced her citizenship.  On the other hand, Grace Poe was a Filipino citizen at birth but renounced her country for the Land of Milk and Honey by her own intelligent and mature choice.  Now she wants to lead the country that she once turned her back on!  Can she convince the Filipinos that she was always a Filipino by heart?  Or should we rather say that she is a Filipino at this point in time because it is the most convenient thing to say?  In this context, the young Jessica Sanchez may appear nobler than Grace Poe!