4/29/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly the US after re-acquiring his Philippine citizenship under RA 9225 and renouncing his US citizenship, were mere isolated acts that were sufficiently justified under the given circumstances that Arnado fully explained; 3) Arnado’s use of his US passport did not amount to an express renunciation of his Philippine citizenship under Section 1 of Commonwealth Act No. 63 (CA 63); 4) Under the circumstances of this case, Arnado did not do anything to negate the oath of renunciation he took; 5) At any rate, all doubts should be resolved in favor of Arnado’s eligibility after this was confirmed by the mandate of the people of Kauswagan, Lanao del Norte by his election as Mayor; and 6) The assailed findings of facts and consequent conclusions of law are based on evidence on record and are correct applications of law; hence, no basis exists for this Court to rule that the Comelec en banc committed grave abuse of discretion in ruling on the case. The Antecedent Facts Respondent Rommel Cagoco Arnado is a natural born Filipino citizen, born to Filipino parents on July 22, 1957 at Iligan City, Lanao del Norte.[2] In 1985, he immigrated to the United States for job purposes.[3] He was deemed to have lost his Filipino citizenship by operation of law[4] when he became a naturalized citizen of the United States of America while in America. In 2003, Congress declared it the policy of the State that all Philippine citizens who become citizens of another country shall be deemed not to have lost their Philippine citizenship upon compliance with the statute Congress passed – RA 9225.[5] Arnado, like many other Filipinos before him, at age 51 and after a stay of 23 years in the U.S., opted to re-affirm his Filipino citizenship by filing the required application and taking his oath before the Philippine Consulate General in San Francisco, USA. His application was approved by Consul Wilfredo C. Santos, evidenced by an Order of Approval dated July 10, 2008.[6] He took his Oath of Allegiance to the Republic of the Philippines (Republic) on the same day and was accordingly issued Identification Certificate Number SF-1524-08/2008 declaring him once more purely a citizen of the Republic.[7] On April 3, 2009, Arnado took another Oath of Allegiance to the Republic and executed an Affidavit of Renunciation of his foreign citizenship.[8] Eleven days later or on April 14, 2009, Arnado left the country for the United States. According to Bureau of Immigration records, Arnado then used a passport – US Passport (No. 057782700) – that identified his nationality as “USA-AMERICAN.” The same record also indicated that Arnado used the same U.S. Passport when he returned elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/55820 35/49