Fil-Ams told: Think twice before renouncing citizenship
The Philippine Embassy in Washington is cautioning Filipino Americans against renouncing their Philippine citizenship in view of a new bill in the US Senate that wants to end dual citizenship in the United States.
The advisory on Saturday comes after Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio introduced on Dec. 1 a bill called Exclusive Citizenship Act of 2025, which could outlaw dual citizenship when passed into law.
“Our Philippine foreign service posts in the United States are closely monitoring the bill and advise the Filipino-American community to do the same and exercise caution in renouncing their citizenship. Renunciation of Philippine citizenship is an irreversible legal action,” the Philippine Embassy said in a statement.
To ease concerns, the embassy said lawmakers would have to first deliberate on the bill, “given its possible significant impact on major immigrant groups in the country.” It also pointed to similar proposed legislations in the past that did not gain traction in the US Congress.
For ‘undivided’ allegiance
In fact, it said, a 1952 ruling of the US Supreme Court has recognized the right of an individual to possess nationality in two countries and that dual citizenship is a “status long recognized by law.”
Nearly 5 million individuals in the United States identify as Filipino in 2023, based on data from the US Census Bureau. The number includes those who were born in the United States and immigrants whose family were from the Philippines.
In October alone, 226 Filipinos in Orlando, Florida, became dual citizens after some lost their Philippine citizenship when they were naturalized as Americans.
In his bill, Moreno said an American citizen’s “allegiance to the United States must be undivided.”
“One of the greatest honors of my life was when I became an American citizen at 18, the first opportunity I could do so,” Moreno, an immigrant from Colombia, said in a statement announcing his filing of the bill.
“It was an honor to pledge an oath of allegiance to the United States of America and only to the United States of America! Being an American citizen is an honor and a privilege—and if you want to be an American, it’s all or nothing. It’s time to end dual citizenship for good,” he added.
