What is Citizenship? Citizenship is defined as membership in a political community governed by a symbiotic relationship between state and its citizens.

Who are the citizens of the Philippines? Citizens are members of a political community who, in their associated capacity have established of submitted themselves to the dominion of a government for the promotion of their general welfare and the protection of their individual as well as collective rights. Art. VI, Sec. 1 of the Philippine Constitution enumerates the following as Citizens of the Philippine: 1. Those who are citizens of the Philippines at the time of the adaptation of this Constitution; 2. Those whose fathers or mothers are citizens of the Philippines; 3. Those born before February 17, 1973, of Filipino mothers, who elect Philippine citizenship upon reaching the age of majority; and 4. Those who are naturalized in accordance with the law. The above provisions enumerate those who are citizens of the Philippines. Subsection 1 pertains to the specific date of February 2, 1987, whereby all Filipino citizens born on that day and thereafter, and those who are already Filipino citizens prior to this date of ratification of this Constitution, are generally declared Filipino citizens. Additionally, those whose parents are Filipino citizens are likewise Filipino citizens. This is the departure from the sexist provision of the 1935 Constitution which requires that the father must be a Filipino citizen for an offspring to be automatically accorded Filipino citizenship. The 1973 Constitution and the 1987 Constitution among others, require that either the father or mother must be a Filipino citizen, thereby putting the Filipino mother in equal footing with the Filipino father. Sec. 2, Art. VI. Natural-born Filipino citizens are those who are citizens of the Philippines form birth, without having to perform and act to acquire or perfect their Philippine citizenship. Those who elect Philippine citizenship in accordance with paragraph (3) Section 1 hereof, shall be deemed natural born citizens. It could be gleaned from the citation that there are two kinds of Filipino citizens, the natural born and the naturalized. Natural-born Filipino citizen is one who is a Filipino citizen by birth and there is no need for him to perform an act to perfect or complete the same. A naturalized Filipino citizen is one who possesses all the qualifications and not any one of the disqualifications and has undergone all the processes as are required by law. There are two bases of citizenship, the Jus soli or Jus loci and the jus sanguinis. Literally, jus sulipertains to soil and locus or loci locality. This means that the basis of ones citizenship is his place of birth. Jus sanguinis, on the other hand, originated from a Spanish term sangreor blood where the basis of ones citizenship is blood relationship.

In other countries like the USA, aside from the consanguinity, place of birth is also of ones citizenship. In the Philippines, the birth of an individual in this country does not necessarily and automatically confer on him Philippine citizenship. The framers of the 1987 Constitution frown upon dual citizenship; hence, it prohibits dual allegiance as found in Sec 5 of Art.IV. It also protects Filipino women who may marry aliens. Under the new Constitution, they may choose to retain or to renounce their Filipino citizenship. In Sec 4, Art. IV, the bases of losing or reacquiring lost Philippine citizenship are provided: Sec. 3, Art. IV. Philippine citizenship may be lost or reacquired in the manner provided by law. Sec. 4, Art. IV. Citizens of the Philippines who marry aliens shall retain their citizenship, unless by their act or omission they are deemed under the law, to have renounced it. Sec. 5, Art. IV. Dual allegiance of citizen is inimical to the national interest and shall be dealt with by the law. Previous discussion underscores the importance of citizenship. It could be gleaned from her that one may be accorded protection by his country within the state, and even outside the country. However, one may be deported if he is no longer a Filipino citizen. More so, if he is an undesirable alien.