The foreign relations committee of the bicameral Commission on Appointments suspended yesterday the confirmation process on the appointment of Perfecto Rivas Yasay Jr. as Department of Foreign Affairs Secretary to allow him time to submit documents that he is not an American citizen.
Yasay maintained that he was a US green card holder in 1986 but abandoned his permanent residency the following year.
Before assuming the DFA post last July, Yasay said that his “renunciation is predicated upon that admission that I was not qualified’’ based on US immigration rules. Yasay’s wife, however, is a US citizen.
“I was not qualified because at that time, I already had plans to abandon my permanent residency in the US to return to the Philippines. On that basis I never acquired legal status as a US citizen,’’ he told Rep. Josephine Ramirez Sato. (Mario B. Casayuran)