Talk:Philippine nationality law

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[edit] Please (or can I) remove...

May I remove the section Treaty of Paris? That section has this quotation:"The Spaniards residing in the territories over which Spain by this treaty cedes or relinquishes her sovereignty shall be subject in matters civil as well as criminal to the jurisdiction of the courts of the country wherein they reside, pursuant to the ordinary laws governing the same; and they shall have the right to appear before such courts, and to pursue the same course as citizens of the country to which the courts belong." I think it only says that Spaniards who reside in the territories reliquished by Spain (that includes the Philippine Islands) will only be covered by any of all the courts in their residence, not necessarily that those Spaniards will be Filipino citizens. -Pika ten10 (talk) 04:58, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

That raises the question of the nationality of the inhabitants of the Philippine Islands prior to the Treaty of Paris. Were all of them except those visiting from other countries "Spaniards", including those who you and I would think of today as Filipinos? If not, what was their nationality? Some traveled internationality -- what country issued their passports?

I don't know the answer to those questions, but my best guess is that prior to the Treaty of Paris, Filipinos were Spanish subjects and were considered as Spanish nationals of some sort. My guess is that when Filipinos traveled outside of the Philippines, they did so on Spanish passports.

That snippet from the TofP doesn't do much to clarify the issue of Filipino citizenship during the period prior to the 1902 passage of the Philippine Organic Act (POA). Rather than have it just deleted, though, it would probably be better to replace it with some explanation of the nationality of inhabitants of the Philippines prior to 1902.

Does anyone have something better to offer on this subject than my guesswork? Incidentally, I note that the POA says "all inhabitants of the Philippine Islands continuing to reside therein who were Spanish subjects on the eleventh day of April, eighteen hundred and ninety-nine, and then resided in the Philippine Islands, and their children born subsequent thereto, shall be deemed and held to be citizens of the Philippine Islands ..." This confirms to some extent my guess above that Filipinos were Spanish subjects, but I'm not sure what import that has in terms of nationality. Also, I'm left wondering what sort of passport "citizens of the Philippine Islands" traveled on, and who issued it. -- More questions than answers, I'm afraid. Can anybody clarify this? -- Boracay Bill (talk) 08:04, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

If no one of us can precisely interpret this passage in the 1898 Treaty of Paris, then we must consult this article to a law expert. -Pika ten10 (talk) 07:14, 10 January 2008 (UTC)