Philippine Citizenship Loss and Reacquisition

Commonwealth Act No. 63 provides specific, enumerated ways by which Philippine citizenship may be lost and by which it may be reacquired.

Commonwealth Act No. 63 defines no separate terms for general use; operative rules are stated directly under Sections 1 and 2.

Under Section 1, a Filipino citizen may lose Philippine citizenship through any of the following ways and/or events.
Section 1(a) provides loss by naturalization in a foreign country.
Section 1(b) provides loss by express renunciation of citizenship.
Section 1(c) provides loss by subscribing to an oath of allegiance to support the constitution or laws of a foreign country upon attaining twenty-one years of age or more.
Section 1(d) provides loss by accepting commission in the military, naval or air service of a foreign country.
Section 1(e) provides loss by cancellation of the certificate of naturalization.
Section 1(f) provides loss where a person is declared, by competent authority, a deserter of the Philippine army, navy or air corps in time of war, unless subsequently a plenary pardon or amnesty has been granted.
Section 1(g) provides that, in the case of a woman, citizenship is lost upon marriage to a foreigner if, by virtue of the law in force in her husband’s country, she acquires his nationality.

Under Section 2, citizenship may be reacquired through any of the following modes.
Section 2(a) provides reacquisition by naturalization, provided the applicant possess[es] none of the disqualifications prescribed in section two of Act Numbered Twenty-nine hundred and twenty-seven.
Section 2(b) provides reacquisition by repatriation of deserters of the Army, Navy or Air Corp, provided a woman who lost her citizenship by reason of her marriage to an alien may be repatriated in accordance with the Act after the termination of the marital status.
Section 2(c) provides reacquisition by direct act of the National Assembly.

Section 3 applies the naturalization procedure under Act Numbered Twenty-nine hundred and twenty-seven, as amended to reacquisition by naturalization.
Section 3 provides that the qualifications and special qualifications in sections three and four of Act Numbered Twenty-nine hundred and twenty-seven shall not be required for reacquisition by naturalization under Section 2(a).
Section 3 requires that the applicant be at least twenty-one years of age.
Section 3 requires that the applicant reside in the Philippines at least six months before he applies for naturalization.
Section 3 requires the applicant to have conducted himself in a proper and irreproachable manner during the entire period of his residence in the Philippines, in relations with the constituted government and with the community.
Section 3 requires the applicant to subscribe to an oath declaring intention to renounce absolutely and perpetually all faith and allegiance to the foreign authority, state or sovereignty of which he was a citizen or subject.

Under Section 4, repatriation is effected by merely taking the necessary oath of allegiance to the Commonwealth of the Philippines.
Under Section 4, repatriation is also completed by registration in the proper civil registry.

Section 5 directs the Secretary of Justice to issue necessary regulations for the proper enforcement of Commonwealth Act No. 63.
Section 5 provides that naturalization blanks and other blanks required to carry out the Act shall be prepared and furnished by the Solicitor General, subject to the approval of the Secretary of Justice.