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
non-immigrant 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 sistersin-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:

Yes. 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 every time 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. Every time the
citizenship of a person is material or indispensable 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.