Senate Committee approves Philippine citizenship of Elizabeth Zobel de Ayala
MANILA, Philippines – The Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights on Tuesday approved a bill to grant Filipino citizenship to Elizabeth Eder-Zobel de Ayala, wife of the CEO of Ayala Corp. Jaime Augusto Zobel from Ayala.
The Senate Committee approved Senate Bill 2221, introduced by Senator Franklin Drilon, which seeks to provide Elizabeth “with all the rights and privileges as well as the duties and obligations attached thereto under our Constitution and existing laws “.
A counterpart House Bill 9376 had already been approved by the House of Representatives in September. Following the approval of the Senate committee, the bill will now be submitted to the plenary.
According to the Senate bill, Elizabeth married her husband in his hometown of Cali, Colombia, in June 1987.
“Since August 1987, she has taken up residence in the Philippines,” reads the note to the proposed measure.
Her four children and two grandchildren are all Filipino citizens.
In 1999, she co-founded the Sa Aklat Sisikat Foundation which aims to develop literacy programs in public schools. She was also appointed by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Museum of the Philippines from 2001 to 2010.
Ayala is also chair of the board of Teach for the Philippines, a nonprofit organization that aims to ensure that all Filipino children have equal access to quality education.
According to the bill, she should take the oath of allegiance to the Republic of the Philippines which should be registered with the Bureau of Immigration (BI). When registering the oath, the IB will then issue him with a certificate of naturalization.
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