Senators say Yasay may face perjury complaint

INQUIRER FORUM Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri (right) and other members of the Senate “Seatmates”—Senators Sonny Angara, JV Ejercito, Sherwin Gatchalian and Joel Villanueva—comment on the reported American citizenship of Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr.—EDWIN BACASMAS

Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr. is in a “very serious situation” following an Inquirer report that he was a US citizen, according to three senators who serve on the Commission on Appointments (CA).

At the Meet Inquirer Multimedia (MIM) forum, Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri said on Monday that Yasay was in a precarious situation because he claimed under oath that he had never been an American citizen.

For Sen. Panfilo Lacson, chair of the CA committee on foreign affairs, Yasay’s biggest problem was not his being rejected by the CA but his being charged with perjury.

Lacson told Senate reporters that a perjury complaint could be filed against Yasay if it was proven the foreign secretary had lied that he never acquired US citizenship.

Documents obtained by the Inquirer showed that Yasay obtained US citizenship in 1986 and that he sought to renounce it in 1993 but failed to reacquire his Philippine citizenship.

Cabinet appointment

The documents also showed that he formally renounced his American citizenship at the US Embassy in Manila on June 28, 2016, two days before President Duterte appointed him to the Cabinet.

Zubiri said Yasay had lied to the CA—a ground for the rejection of his Cabinet appointment—if proven that indeed he had been a US citizen.

“I think [Yasay] took being foreign secretary a little too literally,” Sen. Sonny Angara said at the MIM forum.

Yasay was in Geneva on Monday and was not available for comment.

He told the CA hearing last week that he had applied for US naturalization but never legally acquired US citizenship.

Sen. JV Ejercito said the question of Yasay’s citizenship was the main reason he was bypassed by the CA. “We had been waiting for his proof of citizenship,” Ejercito said at the MIM.

Verification

Lacson said there was a need to authenticate the documents showing that Yasay acquired US citizenship and took his oath as an American citizen in 1986—information contrary to his testimony before the CA on Feb. 22.

“He (Yasay) should not worry much about him not being confirmed. He should worry more on what could be a [perjury] case against him, “ Lacson said.

He told reporters he had scheduled another hearing for March 8 because Yasay said he would be abroad this Wednesday.

The CA committee on foreign affairs has started confirmation hearings on the ad interim appointment of Yasay last week.

Yasay’s confirmation hearing was suspended because many congressmen on the committee still wanted to question Yasay.

Yasay told the CA committee that he had applied for naturalization but never legally acquired US citizenship.

Still, even after he had supposedly given up his US citizenship in 1993, Yasay failed to reacquire his Filipino citizenship, making his position as head of the Department of Foreign Affairs and his previous seven-year stint at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) questionable.

Sen. Franklin Drilon noted that there was no record that Yasay had reacquired Filipino citizenship.

Naturalization process

On a TV program, Drilon said the question of Yasay’s citizenship was important given that the latter was the top government man on the country’s foreign affairs.

He said that if Yasay did reacquire Filipino citizenship before 2003 as he had asserted, it should be through a naturalization process. This involved filing a petition in court to reacquire Filipino citizenship.

If Yasay reacquired his Filipino citizenship, then he should have availed himself of the Dual Citizenship Act by taking again his oath as a Filipino, according to Drilon, author of that law.

“These are questions of fact to which I have no answer,” the senator said.

Asked whether he would confirm Yasay if proven he did not reacquire Filipino citizenship, Drilon said if this was so, then he had “real serious misgivings about Yasay’s qualifications.”

He said that if Yasay did not acquire Filipino citizenship and he had served as SEC chair then the latter could be facing a complaint of usurpation of public functions.