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It was with ease that Gilberto Teodoro Jr., in a room full of peers, family friends, and former colleagues in the legislature, breezed through the powerful Commission on Appointments (CA) on September 13, 2023, just three months after his appointment.
One after the other, CA members from both chambers of Congress praised the then-returning defense chief and 1989 bar topnotcher. It was only Senator Risa Hontiveros and former senator Cynthia Villar who posed policy questions — about defense capacity and posture, why external threats were now a priority, the Chinese Communist Party’s information and influence operations, and energy extraction from Recto Bank.
“I have to say so far, isa ito sa pinaka-interesante or fulfilling, satisfying na pagtatanong so far sa mga opisyal na humarap sa atin,” said Hontiveros. (This is the most interesting or fulfilling, and satisfying questions fielded before an official who’s come before us.)
In just under an hour, Teodoro’s appointment was endorsed before the CA plenary, officially kicking off his second tour as the country’s top defense official.
The relative speed of the confirmation meant committee members and the CA at large skipped out on an issue that had apparently been flagged, based on a copy of Teodoro’s dossier: his previous Maltese citizenship and questions surrounding its acquisition and renunciation.
It’s the whole point of petitions and complaints filed by several Filipinos led by lawyer Russel Miraflor, asking government agencies to validate different documents they had apparently obtained, and to begin a “case build-up and preliminary investigation into possible violations involving alleged false declarations in a Philippine passport application, falsification of public or official documents, and perjury should certified government records support such findings.”
While Teodoro himself has not addressed the complaints filed before the Office of the Pasay City Prosecutor and the Office of the Solicitor General, an official from the Department of National Defense (DND) dismissed Miraflor’s complaint.
Assistant Secretary Erik Ty, chief of the department’s Legal and Legislative Affairs Service, said in a June 18 statement that the complaint “appears to be built on unverified allegations and attempts to shift the burden of proof to the State by requesting the Office of the Pasay City Prosecutor and other government agencies to establish the very facts the complainants themselves failed to prove.”
“That is not how the justice system works. The burden of proof rests on those who make the accusation. A complaint for perjury requires competent evidence, not speculation, assumptions, or a fishing expedition in search of proof. Until credible and verified evidence is presented, these claims remain nothing but unproven accusations,” he said.
Dan Villanueva, the lawyer who represents Miraflor in the case, said they hope to address “lingering questions” over Teodoro’s reported reacquisition of his Filipino citizenship and renouncement of Maltese citizenship.
But what are those questions, exactly?
2025 admission
It was not until July 2025, or two years after his appointment to the post, that Teodoro publicly acknowledged that he once had a Maltese passport and held Maltese citizenship. The admission was prompted by a report from the Manila Times.
Then-DND spokesperson assistant secretary Arsenio Andolong said Teodoro disclosed his possession of a Maltese passport to both the Bureau of Immigration and the Commission on Elections when he filed his candidacy for senator in the May 2022 elections. The same disclosure, said Andolong, was made before the CA in 2023.
The complaint Miraflor and company filed against Teodoro acknowledged this while also claiming that in 2017, or after Teodoro obtained Maltese citizenship, he renewed his Philippine passport. This document, supposedly issued in March 2017, is among those that Miraflor wants the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to validate. He mentioned this in his complaint before the Pasay Office of the Prosecutor.
Citing records that they obtained — but have yet to be verified by both the DFA and the Bureau of Immigration — Teodoro allegedly “may have retained or reacquired Philippine citizenship only in 2021.” Miraflor and his fellow petitioners want those agencies to “produce certified true copies of all records concerning respondent’s retention or reacquisition of Philippine citizenship under Republic Act No. 9225.”
The same information — about the supposed year that the defense chief reacquired his Philippine citizenship and about the supposed acquisition of a Philippine passport before that — is in the dossier provided to the CA. This is according to a copy of the dossier obtained by Rappler. The same document claims that the Bureau of Immigration issued a certification of Teodoro’s retention of Philippine citizenship on September 29, 2021.
The same CA files state that based on Teodoro’s personal data sheet, he was able to acquire Maltese citizenship by investment in December 2016. It’s important to note that the CA dossier was put together by its own intelligence service and contains information culled from submissions by the appointee, interviews with confidential informants, verified documents, and even those that aren’t official or verified by government agencies.
The document posited — but did not conclude — that Teodoro “may have made untruthful or false statements” in obtaining a Philippine passport in 2017 after acquiring Maltese citizenship.
What is unclear or not explicit from Teodoro and the DND’s public statements, thus far, is the timeline of events — when he reacquired his Filipino citizenship and when exactly he renounced his Maltese citizenship.
Rappler has reached out to Komunita Malta for clarification on these details, but has yet to receive a response as of posting.
Both the Philippines and Malta allow their nationals to be dual citizens. In Malta, multiple citizenship is “the rule rather than the exception,” according to Komunita Malta, the government agency which administers citizenship-related matters. Its official website states: “As of 10th February 2000, a citizen of Malta could acquire and retain a foreign citizenship/s along with his/her Maltese citizenship.” This means a person would not need to renounce any existing citizenship to become a Maltese national.
In the Philippines, however, a Philippine national may lose citizenship “through various means such as naturalization in a foreign country, express renunciation of citizenship, or by subscribing to the laws of a foreign country upon reaching the age of majority,” according to a primer of the Philippine embassy in Switzerland. The Citizenship Retention and Re-acquisition Act of 2003 allows natural-born Filipinos to re-acquire their Philippine citizenship.
While possible citizenship issues were outlined in the CA file, the same document noted that as of September 11, 2023, or when the file was last updated, there were no oppositions to his confirmation. Teodoro was confirmed just two days after.
No further statements?
Back in July 2025, when the Maltese passport issue was first brought up, Andolong said that the “motive of this rumor is clear and known to Sec. Teodoro.”
“The timing of the article adds to this motive,” added Andolong, referring to the original Manila Times story. He did not go into specifics.
Miraflor’s complaints — which his team said was “not a political attack, not a personal attack, and not a public conviction of Secretary Teodoro” in its briefer for media — is backdropped by a flurry of pressures on Teodoro, the DND, and even the administration he serves.
On June 11, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) announced sanctions against Teodoro; his wife, special envoy to the United Nations Children’s Fund Nikki Prieto-Teodoro; and their only son. The sanctions — barring the Teodoro family from entering mainland China, Macau, and Hong Kong and prohibiting individuals and companies in China from transacting with them — was made because the defense chief supposedly “repeatedly made irresponsible remarks on China, which undermines China’s legitimate interests and sabotages China-Philippines relations.”
A week before, during the 2026 Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Teodoro warned a room full of defense ministers, diplomats, and military officials about China’s supposed lack of sincerity in negotiations. He also defended the Philippines’ close partner Japan from Beijing’s attempt to raise the alarm over Tokyo’s upping of defense and security spending.
In mid-May 2026, Teodoro himself had flown to Misamis Oriental to visit a steel factory that Philippine law enforcement operatives raided for alleged labor and immigration violations, as well as the supposed faulty handling of hazardous materials.
Defense and security officials also flagged the location of the steel company, which was situated close to a naval base. The steel company was reportedly owned by, or connected to, Chinese businessman Tony Yang, who had been arrested in 2024 for alleged falsification of public documents, perjury, and violation of the law on the use of aliases.
Tony is the brother of Michael Yang, who was the economic adviser of former president Rodrigo Duterte.
The complaints against Teodoro also come amid recurring talk of supposed “frustration” in the military ranks over the volatility in Philippine politics — that’s on top of growing concerns over a flood control scandal, a Pandora’s box that Marcos himself opened in 2025. Senator Panfilo Lacson, a retired police general who hails from the Philippine Military Academy, had warned that “power hungry destabilizers” could “fan the flame of discontent” even beyond the military.
The military has maintained that the uniformed services do not meddle in politics.
But when all is said and done, the question about the timeline of the defense chief’s citizenship timelines remains. Will he answer these with or without the complaints? – Rappler.com
