Lopez did not drop US citizenship EXCLUSIVE

ABS-CBN Corp. Chairman Emeritus Eugenio Gabriel “Gabby” Lopez 3rd did not renounce his US citizenship when he became chairman of the company. He even had his US passport renewed, documents showed.

documents TheManilaTimes from the Bureau obtained of

Immigration attesting that Lopez never considered his US citizenship a legal impediment to his taking charge of a media entity, which by law must be fully

Filipino-owned.

The photocopy of Lopez’s US passport showed that it was issued on Feb. 14, 1996 and bore the number 7000820102.

This was the year when Lopez assumed the chairmanship of ABS-CBN. He was the corporation’s president from 1993 to 1996. He joined the firm as finance director in 1986, the year the company was handed back to the Lopez clan by then-President Corazon Aquino.

The Constitution limits ownership and management of mass media “to citizens of the Philippines or to corporations, cooperatives or associations, wholly-owned and managed by such citizens.”

The birth certificate of Lopez, a copy of which was obtained by TheManilaTimes, shows that it was issued by the Registry Division of Boston in Massachusetts. It listed his birth date as Aug. 13, 1952 and his birthplace as Boston.

The document was applied and issued on Aug. 13, 1971 by the Registry Division of the City of Boston under registry number

of the City of Boston under registry number 14229 and signed by Boston City Registrar William J. Kane.

Proof of the document’s authenticity is the Certificate of Authentication from the Foreign Service of the Philippines, signed by Consul Nida Natalie Garcia on Feb. 27, 2001 from the Consulate General of the Philippines in New York attesting that it was executed by William Francis Galvin, the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Lopez included these US documents in his application for Filipino citizenship on Oct. 3, 2000 after the death of his father Eugenio Lopez Jr. on June 29, 1999.

The documents clearly indicate that it took Lopez 14 years after becoming an officer of ABS-CBN to decide to become a Filipino citizen.

In a two-page letter to then Immigration Commissioner Rufus Rodriguez, Lopez stated: “I am respectfully requesting for recognition as a Filipino citizen and the issuance of a Certificate of Recognition pursuant to the rules of the Bureau of Immigration. My full name is Eugenio Gabriel Lao Lopez III. I am presently the holder of an American (United States of America) passport and an American citizen under US laws by virtue of my being born in Boston, Massachusetts on August 13, 1952.”

He also stated that both his parents were Filipino citizens.

“Since my birth and up to the present, I have not expressly or impliedly renounced my Filipino citizenship by any act or deed. My American citizenwill

ship is by virtue of birth and not by naturalization. I have not rendered service in the armed forces of a foreign country and neither have I even been a deserter of the armed forces of the Philippines,” Lopez said.

His application was approved by then-Justice Secretary Hernando B. Perez through a 2nd Endorsement letter dated Aug. 6, 2001 under Recognition No. 00-051.

Then Immigration Commissioner Andrea Domingo issued Identification Certificate No. 0069 recognizing Lopez as a Filipino citizen on Oct. 1, 2002.

Two years later, the Philippines passed the Dual Citizenship Law, allowing natural-born Filipinos who acquired citizenship in another country to acquire Philippine citizenship.

Even if Lopez did acquire Filipino citizenship, records show that from 1986 up to the time he applied for Filipino citizenship, he traveled extensively using his US passport.

His latest trip during which he used his US passport ( Serial No. 506179018) was on January 2 on a visit to Haneda, Japan.

ABS-CBN went off air early this

month after the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) issued a cease and desist order against the network whose franchise has lapsed.

The company questioned the order before the Supreme Court but the tribunal did not issue a temporary restraining order against the NTC.

The House of Representatives last week had a change of heart and reconsidered its approval of a temporary franchise that would have allowed the network to continue its operations while Congress deliberates on several bills that seek to grant ABS-CBN a new franchise.