Migration Revolution: Philippine Nationhood and Class Relations in a Globalized Age

Chapter 7: Amending the National Narrative: Political Transnationalism and the State’s Reincorporation of Overseas Filipinos

Political Transnationalism and the State’s Reincorporation of Overseas Filipinos 231 231 CHAPTER 7 Amending the National Narrative: Political Transnationalism and the State’s Reincorporation of Overseas Filipinos No one would have anticipated that the Philippines would allow dual citizenship when the legitimacy-seeking martial law regime of President Ferdinand E. Marcos established the Balikbayan Program in 1973 and, a short time later, launched a labor-export policy with the adoption of a new labor code in 1974 as a stopgap measure to deal with unemployment . In hindsight, these were the beginnings of the Philippine state’s two-pronged strategy of wooing back the long gone and the global dispersal of new migrants. The program on return visits to the homeland (balikbayan) signified the onset of a gradual but steady movement toward the political reincorporation of citizens and former citizens who had left the country, which seemed to justify the subsequent policy of encouraging Filipinos to leave for overseas employment. As John Torpey (2000: 10–7) argues, states seek to “embrace”—grasp, take hold of, and register for purposes of surveillance, administration, and regulation—their subject populations through the monopolization of the legitimate means of movement. States embrace their subjects through documents such as passports that mark the identity and stamp approval on the movements of those who leave and return. But some emigrating subjects may be “lost” as they transfer residence to another territory or become naturalized in other states. The Philippine state has performed the remarkable dance of fostering and brokering emigration on the one hand, while on the other hand enticing the physical return of migrants—or at least the return of their earnings. The embracement and political reincorporation of absent citizens and former citizens culminated in the twin legislative acts of absentee voting and dual citizenship that became law in 2003, three decades after the inauguration of the Balikbayan Program. 232 Migration Revolution In October 2002 both chambers of the Philippine Congress passed separate versions of an absentee voting bill, with the bicameral committee of the Senate and House of Representatives agreeing on a consolidated version on 31 January 2003 after resolving contentious issues, particularly who among overseas Filipinos would qualify as absentee voters (Mabutas 2003a). The measure had lingered through four congresses since 1987. Signed by President Gloria M. Arroyo into law on 13 February 2003, Republic Act (RA) 9189 belatedly complied with a provision of the 1987 Philippine Constitution that enshrined the right of suffrage of qualified Filipinos residing outside the homeland. The approved legislation allows the overseas Filipino electorate to cast votes for president, vice president, senators, and party-list representatives in national elections and to participate in national plebiscites. It was first implemented in the 2004 presidential elections, and subsequently in the 2007 legislative elections and the 2010 presidential elections. Also in October 2002, both chambers of the Philippine Congress passed separate versions of a bill on dual citizenship, although the bicameral committee of the Senate and House of Representatives reconciled their respective versions only on 19 August 2003. Strictly speaking, RA 9225 does not use the term “dual citizenship” but declares the policy in Section 2 that “all Philippine citizens who become citizens of another country shall be deemed not to have lost their Philippine citizenship under the conditions of this Act.” Officially titled “An Act Making the Citizenship of Philippine Citizens Who Acquire Foreign Citizenship Permanent,” the law provides for the reacquisition of Philippine citizenship by natural-born Filipinos who have undergone naturalization as citizens of another state, by making a non-exclusive oath of allegiance to the Philippines. On reacquiring Philippine citizenship, they “shall enjoy full civil and political rights” subject to certain conditions identified in Section 5 of the law. This unprecedented bill was signed into law by Arroyo on 29 August 2003, more than six months after the absentee voting bill had been signed into law, indicating its controversial character as a radical recasting of the terms of national belonging. While absentee voting was hampered by technicalities, the new citizenship law overturned the long-established nationalist practice set by Commonwealth Act 63, enacted into law in 1936, which expressly stated that Filipinos who underwent naturalization in another country lost their Philippine citizenship . How did this unprecedented change come about? It ran contrary to the cultural and emotional premises that held immigration, let alone naturalization, as inimical to nationhood. As discussed below, the acts Political Transnationalism...