Senators on Wednesday, Dec. 1, approved on third and final reading the bill granting Philippine citizenship to Elizabeth “Lizzie” Eder Zobel de Ayala who has dedicated her life to various socio-civic activities in the Philippines and championed for literacy, education, and family planning in the country, among others.

All 21 senators, physically and virtually present, voted yes to House Bill No. 9376 granting Philippine citizenship to Lizzie, a native of Cali, Colombia, who married Filipino businessman Augusto Zobel de Ayala in June 1987.

It was Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon who filed the counterpart measure, Senate Bill No. 2221, while Sen. Richard Gordon, who chairs the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights, paved for the approval of the mesure.

During plenary deliberations, Gordon hailed Elizabeth for staying in the country for 34 years, training teachers in Science and in education and in providing digital tools to create more effective and engaging Science teachers.

“She acts already like a Filipino, not conscious of her trappings or titles here in the Philippines or the prominence of the provenance of her family," Gordon said.

In his co-sponsorship speech, Drilon noted that the Senate has granted Filipino citizenships to different personalities in the past, but few were as remarkable as “Lizzie,” who has dedicated her life to various socio-civic activities in the Philippines and championing the causes on literacy, education and family planning, among others.

“I have filed SBN 2221 because of my great conviction that Elizabeth 'Lizzie' Eder Zobel de Ayala deserves all the rights, privileges and prerogatives that come for being a Filipino,” Drilon said.

Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri noted Zobel de Ayala 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.

“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,” Sen. Risa Hontiveros also said.

Zobel de Ayala joined the Founding Board of Museo Pambata in 1994, which she served until 2001. She co-founded the Sa Aklat Sisikat Foundation in 1999, the objective of which was to develop literacy programs that addressed the declining functional literacy rates in public school students in the Philippines.

She also served on the board of the National Museum of the Philippines from the time of her appointment by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in 2001 to 2010.