ANGE Kouame's inclusion in the Gilas Pilipinas pool is the easy part. Completing his naturalization in time for the next Fiba Asia Cup qualifying window won't be as easy.
The Ivorian center must have his application for Philippine citizenship passed by both houses of Congress and signed by President Duterte to be able to play in the November window of the 2021 Fiba Asia Cup qualifiers in Manama, Bahrain.
That's a yeoman's task even for the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP), which successfully worked on the naturalization of Marcus Douthit and Andray Blatche for Gilas Pilipinas, thanks to its allies in Congress.
One is SBP vice-chairman and Antipolo First District Rep. Robbie Puno, who filed House Bill 5951 back in January 21 this year for Kouame's naturalization.
In a previous interview, Puno told SPIN.ph that Kouame needs to submit 21 documentary requirements before the House's Justice Committee can start its deliberations on his bid to acquire Philippine citizenship.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic has made that task doubly hard for Kouame, and there's no clarity if he was indeed able to complete those requirements before going to the Gilas training camp at Inspire Sports Academy in Calamba, Laguna.
Also, the House of Representatives is on a break until November 16, which further complicates matters.
Meanwhile, SBP chairman Sen. Sonny Angara also filed Senate Bill 1892 last October 22, which is the counterpart of Puno's bill in the upper house.
SPIN.ph checked the status of the said bill, and it remains pending as of November 9.
Even if Kouame gets a thumbs up from both chambers, his Filipino citizenship won't be granted until President Duterte approves it - or if it is allowed to lapse into law.
Parties in the SBP certainly will be pushing for close Duterte aide Sen. Bong Go, who is also an ally of the federation, to get the law ratified in time.
That, unfortunately, is not going to be an easy endeavor given the country's continuing fight against the global COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the recovery efforts in the aftermath of Typhoons Rolly and Ulysses.
History also isn't on Kouame's side as naturalization processes in the Philippines aren't done in a breeze.
In the case of Douthit, Puno filed House Bill 2307 on August 9, 2010 and got approved on October 5. Sen. Miguel Zubiri wasted no time filing Senate Bill 2559 on October 10, and got it approved on November 10.
Douthit's papers, though, were left unsigned by then-President Noynoy Aquino but lapsed into law as Republic Act 10148 on March 11, 2011.
Puno also authored House Bill 4084 for the naturalization of Blatche on January 29, 2014 and got its approval on March 10. Angara filed Senate Bill 2108 on February 6 and eventually passed through the Senate Justice Committee on April 1.
Aquino eventually signed Republic Act 10636 on June 11, 2014 which paved the way for Blatche playing for Gilas in the 2014 Fiba World Cup in Spain.
However, recent Philippine citizenship applications haven't really progressed as quickly.
House Bill 8106, which was principally authored by 1-Pacman Rep. Mikee Romero on August 15 2018, sought to give Ginebra resident import Justin Brownlee a Filipino citizenship. That bill hasn't gotten off the ground more than two years since it was filed.
Kouame, 20, is certainly going to provide a big impact for Gilas in international competitions whenever the Ateneo banger gets his naturalization papers done.
Getting it done in a little less than two weeks, though, is certainly going to be a long shot.
Count on SBP, still, to move heaven and earth to get it approved. But the chances of getting it done before the Manama qualifiers? Slim and none.
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