Young Voices Speak – Who needs a natural-born Filipino as President?

QUEZON City, Philippines (December 24) – No one is purely Pinoy. Based on history, our forefathers were Negritos, Indones, and Malays. On 15^th century, Spaniards came and stayed for 333 years. The treaty of Paris was signed and the Philippines were handed to Uncle Sam who helped to administer the government. The Second World War happened and Japanese tried to colonize. For 5 centuries, is there a pure Pinoy left? We are Filipinos by heart.

The Philippines is in third place for the largest English-speaking country. We adopted the US Constitution. Beauty pageants should represent the country but our participants have other blood than Filipino. So, why are we dead set against someone not a natural born Filipino citizen becoming our President when many of us have foreigners’ blood running in our veins? We all know that we had a president that is not so Filipino at heart. In the history of politics, we had puppets and balimbing.

The qualifications for President according to our Constitution are as follows: natural-born citizen of the Philippines, registered voter, able to read and write, at least 40 years of age on the day of election and resident of the Philippines for at least 10 years immediately preceding the election.  This law was adopted from the US Constitution. James Jay, who became Chief Justice of US Supreme Court, suggested George Washington to put “natural-born citizen” as a qualification for president to prevent the interference of foreign government.

What will the interference of foreign government bring to Filipinos? If our President is strong enough to stand for the country regardless of his citizenship we may earn an ally. We’ll have stronger military force.  We can expand international trade and improve economy.

If only he’s strong enough to stand for the country.

References:

https://infogr.am/mga-unang-tao-sa-pilipinas-ninuno

http://tl.answers.com/Q/Ano_ang_mga_bansang_sumakop_sa_Pilipinas.

(written by Karen Llacuna, edited by Jay Paul Carlos, additional research by Lovely Ann Cruz)