Chinese Power Grid Technicians might be the reason of continuous brownout in Manila? They are kicked -out! - DOE

NGCP - image source: PIO

Palace backs termination of 16 Chinese with NGCP

MANILA - Malacañang is standing by the decision of the Department of Energy to terminate the services of 16 Chinese experts at the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines after security concerns were raised.

"We're quite certain that the Department of Energy has arrived at this particular conclusion after a thorough study of the advantages and disadvantages of it," deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said yesterday.

Valte added the DOE took into consideration the legalities surrounding the decision not to renew the Chinese experts' visas.

She said Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla could provide more details on the matter as she refrained from answering whether the decision was related to the West Philippine Sea dispute.

"We've always said that we have a multifaceted relationship with our neighbor, and that as much as possible, no matter what challenges we are facing in one facet of the relationship, we always endeavor to develop the other facets of that relationship and we try not to let it spillover into the other levels of that relationship," Valte said.

The state-owned State Grid Corp. of China has a 40 percent stake in the NGCP.

Petilla said only two Chinese would remain in their capacity as board directors while the rest would have to leave by July.

Meetings have been ongoing since last year among officials of the National Security Council, the Department of Justice, Department of Energy and the Office of the President, Petilla said.

He said the NGCP – led by its president and chief executive officer Henry Sy Jr., who attended one of the high-level meetings last year –agreed that only Filipino technical experts would run the transmission firm. - ABS-CBN

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SIAG Germany law Pave Philippine - German Dual Citizenship starting 2015

Image source: gov.ph

Effective December 20, 2014, children born in Germany after January 1, 2000, to parents who, upon said birth, 1) were both foreigners and 2) one parent has stayed in Germany legally for eight years, and 3) the child has grown up in Germany, can now opt for both German citizenship and the citizenship of their parent's country when they turn 21. Previously, children born to foreign parents had to face the difficult decision of choosing only one citizenship upon reaching 21. For those who were born of Filipino parents, this meant choosing German citizenship over Filipino citizenship.

The amended German citizenship law, the German Nationality Act or StAG, has now abolished the exclusivity rule that obliged children born in Germany of foreigner parents to choose one citizenship over the other citizenship (Optionspflicht). Children born of foreigner (non-German) parents in Germany after January 1, 2000, can now have both citizenships. However, one condition states that they should have grown up in Germany. This means they have been in Germany for eight years or attended a school in Germany for six years, or graduated from school or occupational training in Germany.

The same exemption from the obligation to choose is applicable to those children of foreign parents who were born in Germany between January 1, 1990, and December 31, 1999, and were naturalized, becoming German citizens in the year 2000. For them, they are likewise no longer obliged to choose one from both citizenships and can therefore retain their dual citizenships provided they grew up in Germany.

The changes to the citizenship law will not affect the current rule in the Philippines that children born of mixed marriages (ex. Filipino-German) are entitled to both citizenships (dual citizenship by reason of blood).

Thus, aside from the usual dual Filipino-German citizens, born of mixed Filipino and German parents and who are therefore both Filipinos and German by birth, there is now a newer group of dual Filipino-German citizens. They are those born of Filipino parents, or of a Filipino parent and a non-German parent.

Philippine Ambassador to Germany Melita Sta. Maria-Thomeczek applauded the recent amendments to the German law. Ambassador Thomeczek stated that "the changes to the immigration law are important in ensuring that Germany continues to be an open and multicultural society. It is especially important that Filipino-German youth, many of whom continue to closely identify themselves with the Philippines, are able to stake their claim to their parent's homeland. No difficult decisions will have to be made—the only decision they will have to think about it is when to renew their Philippine passport!" - dfa.gov.ph

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