4/9/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly citizenship before administer an oath; any public officer authorized to (3) Those appointed to any public office shall subscribe and swear to an oath of allegiance to the Republic of the Philippines and its duly constituted authorities prior to their assumption of office: Provided, That they renounce their oath of allegiance to the country where they took that oath; (4) Those intending to practice their profession in the Philippines shall apply with the proper authority for a license or permit to engage in such practice; and (5) That right to vote or be elected or appointed to any public office in the Philippines cannot be exercised by, or extended to, those who: (a) are candidates for or are occupying any public office in the country of which they are naturalized citizens; and/or (b) are in active service as commissioned or noncommissioned officers in the armed forces of the country which they are naturalized citizens. (Emphasis ours) Under the provisions of the aforementioned law, the petitioner has validly re-acquired her Filipino citizenship when she took an Oath of Allegiance to the Republic of the Philippines on December 5, 2005. At that point, she held dual citizenship, i.e., Australian and Philippine. On September 18, 2006, or a year before she initially sought elective public office, she filed a renunciation of Australian citizenship in Canberra, Australia. Admittedly, however, the same was not under oath contrary to the exact mandate of Section 5(2) that the renunciation of foreign citizenship must be sworn before an officer authorized to administer oath. To obviate the fatal consequence of her inutile renunciation, the petitioner pleads the Court to interpret the “sworn renunciation of any and all foreign citizenship” in Section 5(2) to be a mere pro forma requirement in conformity with the intent of the Legislature. She anchors her submission on the statement made by Representative Javier during the floor deliberations on H.B. No. 4720, the precursor of R.A. No. 9225. At the outset, it bears stressing that the Court’s duty to interpret the law according to its true intent is exercised only when the law is ambiguous or of doubtful meaning. The elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/55170 8/18