The Senate on Monday unanimously approved on third and final reading the bill that grants Philippine citizenship to Justin Brownlee.
With a vote of 21-0-0, the Upper Chamber passed House Bill 6224 without amendments, and will soon be transmitted to the Office of the President to be signed by President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. into law.
The said bill was approved on third reading by the House of Representatives last November with 274 affirmative votes, no negative, and one abstention.
With this, Brownlee has inched much closer to becoming a Filipino, which will also make him the latest addition to Gilas Pilipinas’ pool of naturalized players that has NBA star Jordan Clarkson and Ange Kouame of Ateneo.
The resident Ginebra import is being targeted to play for the national team in the FIBA World Cup 2023 Asian Qualifiers’ sixth window in February.
Both of their matches will be held at the Philippine Arena, with Gilas hosting Asia Cup silver medalists Lebanon on the 24th then Jordan on the 27th.
The Filipino dribblers are coming into the final WCQ window with a three-game winning streak, highlighted by their sweep of the fifth phase last November behind solid wins over the Jordanians and Saudi Arabia.
