Reporter: Falsis, John Elbert R.

PIL
MOY YA LIM YAO VS. COMMISSIONER OF IMMIGRATION
G.R. No. L-21289, October 4 1971, 41 SCRA 292
FACTS:
Lau Yuen Yeung applied for a passport visa to enter the Philippines as a nonimmigrant on 8 February 1961. In the interrogation made in connection with
her application for a temporary visitor's visa to enter the Philippines, she
stated that she was a Chinese residing at Kowloon, Hongkong, and that she
desired to take a pleasure trip to the Philippines to visit her great grand
uncle, Lau Ching Ping. She was permitted to come into the Philippines on 13
March 1961 for a period of one month.
On the date of her arrival, Asher Y. Cheng filed a bond in the amount of
P1,000.00 to undertake, among others, that said Lau Yuen Yeung would
actually depart from the Philippines on or before the expiration of her
authorized period of stay in this country or within the period as in his
discretion the Commissioner of Immigration or his authorized representative
might properly allow.
After repeated extensions, Lau Yuen Yeung was allowed to stay in the
Philippines up to 13 February 1962. On 25 January 1962, she contracted
marriage with Moy Ya Lim Yao alias Edilberto Aguinaldo Lim an alleged
Filipino citizen. Because of the contemplated action of the Commissioner of
Immigration to confiscate her bond and order her arrest and immediate
deportation, after the expiration of her authorized stay, she brought an
action for injunction. At the hearing which took place one and a half years
after her arrival, it was admitted that Lau Yuen Yeung could not write and
speak either English or Tagalog, except for a few words. She could not name
any Filipino neighbor, with a Filipino name except one, Rosa. She did not
know the names of her brothers-in-law, or sisters-in-law. As a result, the
Court of First Instance of Manila denied the prayer for preliminary
injunction. Moya Lim Yao and Lau Yuen Yeung appealed.
ISSUE:
Whether or not Lau Yuen Yeung ipso facto became a Filipino citizen upon her
marriage to a Filipino citizen.
HELD:
Under Section 15 of Commonwealth Act 473, an alien woman marrying
a Filipino, native born or naturalized, becomes ipso facto a Filipina provided
she is not disqualified to be a citizen of the Philippines under Section 4 of the
same law.

Likewise, an alien woman married to an alien who is subsequently

naturalized here follows the Philippine citizenship of her husband the
moment he takes his oath as Filipino citizen, provided that she does not
suffer from any of the disqualifications under said Section 4. Whether the
alien woman requires to undergo the naturalization proceedings, Section 15
is a parallel provision to Section 16. Thus, if the widow of an applicant for
naturalization as Filipino, who dies during the proceedings, is not required to
go through a naturalization proceedings, in order to be considered as a
Filipino citizen hereof, it should follow that the wife of a living Filipino cannot
be denied the same privilege.
This is plain common sense and there is absolutely no evidence that
the Legislature intended to treat them differently.
As the laws of our country, both substantive and procedural, stand today,
there is no such procedure (a substitute for naturalization proceeding to
enable the alien wife of a Philippine citizen to have the matter of her own
citizenship settled and established so that she may not have to be called
upon to prove it everytime she has to perform an act or enter into a
transaction or business or exercise a right reserved only to Filipinos), but
such is no proof that the citizenship is not vested as of the date of marriage
or the husband's acquisition of citizenship, as the case may be, for the truth
is that the situation obtains even as to native-born Filipinos.
Everytime the citizenship of a person is material or indispensible in
a judicial or administrative case. Whatever the corresponding court or
administrative authority decides therein as to such citizenship is generally
not considered as res adjudicata, hence it has to be threshed out again and
again as the occasion may demand.
Lau Yuen Yeung, was declared to have become a Filipino citizen from and by
virtue of her marriage to Moy Ya Lim Yao al as Edilberto Aguinaldo Lim, a
Filipino citizen of 25 January 1962.

Section 4.
Who are disqualified. - The following cannot be naturalized as Philippine
citizens:

Persons opposed to organized government or affiliated with any

association or group of persons who uphold and teach doctrines
opposing all organized governments;

Persons defending or teaching the necessity or propriety of violence,

personal assault, or assassination for the success and predominance of
their ideas;
Polygamists or believers in the practice of polygamy;
Persons convicted of crimes involving moral turpitude;

Persons suffering from mental alienation or incurable contagious

diseases;
Persons who, during the period of their residence in the Philippines,
have not mingled socially with the Filipinos, or who have not evinced a
sincere desire to learn and embrace the customs, traditions, and ideals
of the Filipinos;
Citizens or subjects of nations with whom the United States and the
Philippines are at war, during the period of such war;
Citizens or subjects of a foreign country other than the United
States whose laws do not grant Filipinos the right to become
naturalized citizens or subjects thereof.