Live in the Philippines

Live in the Philippines helps expats with visas, moving and other services regarding the Philippines.

Language requirements for naturalization

Philippine Citizenship / by

Recently, I have received a number of inquiries concerning language requirements for being naturalized as a Philippine Citizen.

Learning-Langauges-is-a-good-thing
Learning-Langauges-is-a-good-thing

The law on this is clear:

He must be able to speak and write English or Spanish and any one of the principal Philippine languages

A number of people have stated to me that this means that if you can speak English or Spanish, you may be naturalized in the Philippines.  This, however, is clearly incorrect.  The law states that you must speak English or Spanish AND one of the principal Philippine Languages.

What are the “principal Philippine languages?  Well, that part is open to interpretation, but would include languages like Tagalog, Filipino, Cebuano (Bisaya), Ilocano, Ilonggo and such.  Being able to speak (and write) any of these national languages or regional languages would fulfill the language  requirements for naturalization.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. I’m inclined to believe that Bob is quite correct in his observation, and furthermore that it’s a very reasonable requirement of naturalization anywhere. and is the least onerous of all the requirements.

  3. That’s what I always thought, but reading more, it seems to say English, Spanish, OR a Philippines language?

    • Here is the exact text of the law (Commonwealth Act 473 – Philippine Naturalization Law):

      He must be able to speak and write English or Spanish and any one of the principal Philippine languages

      I don’t know why you feel it “seems to say or” because the word OR is not even in the law, it specifically says AND one of the principal Philippine Languages.

  4. Hi, I have been searching this law up for quite a while and most of the websites that I have come up with had said OR instead of AND. I just want to clarify where you got the AND in here. I just really want to make sure because everyone seems to be saying OR and I know its weird because I also feel like it’s supposed to say AND.