The Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights on Tuesday, Oct. 26 approved the bill seeking to grant Philippine citizenship to Elizabeth Eder-Zobel de Ayala, wife of Ayala Corp. Chairman and CEO Jaime Zobel De Ayala.
Approved was Senate Bill No. 2221 which was introduced by Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon. The measure seeks to grant her “with all the rights and privileges as well as the duties and obligations appurtenant, thereto, under our Constitution and existing laws.”
Drilon said that in his almost 24 years in the Senate, having filed and approved bills granting Filipino citizenship to various personalities, few were as remarkable as Zobel de Ayala.
The minority leader said Mrs. Zobel de Ayala dedicated her life to various socio-civic activities in the country since her marriage to Jaime Augusto Zobel De Ayala in 1987.
“The extraordinary thing about Lizzie, if I may call our applicant Lizzie, is that her privilege does not make her rest in comfort, instead, it drives her to serve the larger community around her, inspiring and initiating change, restoring hope and helping build a nation which she adopted as her own. It is indeed a pleasure for me to have filed the corresponding measure in the Senate,” Drilon said during the hearing.
Sen. Sonny Angara also supported the measure, and its counterpart bill in the House of Representatives, House Bill No. 9376.
According to Angara, he had the pleasure of working with Mrs. Zobel de Ayala since she was then the founder and director of “Teach for the Philippines”—a non-profit organization that enlists promising young leaders in the Philippines to teach in public schools across the country.
Sen. Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri also said supported the bill as she supported a lot of non-government organizations and advocacies.
“Behind a successful man is an even more successful woman. She has been part of bringing the country back to the forefront of protecting children, education and so many more advocacies,” Zubiri said.
For her part, Sen. Risa Hontiveros said Mrs. Zobel de Ayala has been a Filipino at heart for a very long time.
“This is indeed one of the very happy bills that we in the Senate are blessed to hear and eventually pass into law. Welcome to the status that is decades overdue because you have been a Filipino at heart for a very, very long time,” Hontiveros said.
According to the bill, Elizabeth married her husband in her hometown in Cali, Colombia in June 1987 and in August since that year, “she has made the Philippines her home.”
Her four children and two grandchildren are all Filipino citizens.