Eduardo P. Pangilinan v. Francisco C. Castro

This case requires us to examine the evolution of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. We must determine whether appellees, eighty-five individuals who renounced their Filipino citizenship in 1977 in order to be eligible to secure rights as citizens of the emerging commonwealth, and who were found qualified to vote in the election of commonwealth officials, may be denied certificates of identity as citizens of the commonwealth after its government began operation. The district court, after a thorough and scholarly review of the relevant history, held that the new government could not challenge plaintiffs’ qualifications for interim citizenship. We affirm.

The relevant history begins with the Covenant to Establish a Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands in Political Union with the United States of America. The Covenant was approved by Congress on March 24, 1976. Pub. L. No. 94-241, 90 Stat. 263 (1976), reprinted in 48 U.S.C. § 1681 note, at 237 (Supp.1982). The people of the Northern Mariana Islands also approved the Covenant by plebiscite. The Covenant governs the relationship between the Northern Marianas and the United States during the transitional period…