MOY YA LIM YAO et. al v.

COMMISSIONER OF IMMIGRATION he takes his oath as Filipino citizen, provided that she does not
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. 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 which the
Court of First Instance in Manila denied.
suffer from any of the disqualifications under said Section 4.
(2) No. In all instances where citizenship is conferred by operation
of law, the time when citizenship is conferred should not be
confused with the time when citizenship status is established as a
proven fact. Thus, even a natural-born citizen of the Philippines,
whose citizenship status is put in issue in any proceeding, would be
required to prove, for instance, that his father is a citizen of the
Philippines in order to factually establish his claim to citizenship. His
citizenship status commences from the time of birth, although his
claim thereto is established as a fact only at a subsequent time.
Likewise, an alien woman who might herself be lawfully naturalized
becomes a Philippine citizen at the time of her marriage to a Filipino
husband, not at the time she is able to establish that status as a
proven fact by showing that she might herself be lawfully
naturalized.

Issues: (1) Whether or not Lau Yuen Yeung ipso facto became a
Filipino citizen upon her marriage to Moya Lim Yao alias Edilberto
Aguinaldo, a Filipino citizen. (2) Whether there is need of judicial
naturalization proceeding before the alien wife of a Filipino may
herself be considered a Filipino.

Ruling: (1) 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