Proud to be pinoy ... again!

Yup, I'm Filipino again ... re-acquired citizenship, that is.
And yet, I'm also a Swede. Hurray for dual citizenship!

I got sworn in today at lunchtime - with my favourite boys in attendance. It was neat as I recite my oath of allegiance. It was a bit comic because I was not all all prepared to do the oath. I thought I was called in to finalise my documents and submit my notarised copies. In my application form, I have consciously declined issuance of any Philippine passport in my name and omitted my son's name to avail of dual citizenship. The embassy staff tried so hard to convince me to apply for a passport instead of just the Citizen ID Card, and they tried so very hard to convince me to include my son's name in my dual citizenship application. Still, very diplomatic, I declined. When pressed for reasons, I tried to explain as civil, and honestly as I could.

The passport issue: Other than it's but an extra expense, and for practical reasons, I do not have any good use of the Philippine passport. I travel a lot in Europe - both at work and privately. Travelling on a Philippine passport is an inconvenience for me due to the need to avail of the Schengen visa everytime I need to travel. I would want to be able to travel without any constraint in Europe, Asia and the USA without any visa hassle. My Swedish/EU passport makes all my travels easy as pie.

Dual citizenship for my son: This, I feel, is something I cannot decide for my son at his young age. I would like to give him the option to decide for himself. Applying for one now felt so wrong ... he's too young to understand what this is all about. Think if this isn't what he would want?

Right or wrong, I stand by my decision. I'll take whatever consequence my decisions would entail in the future. One thing is sure at this point in time - yes, I'm proud to be a Filipino again. Especially now with a new President in Noynoy Aquino ... there sure is hope, and one can dream again for a better Philippines - and I want to be part of all that.