G.R. No.

L-21289 October 4, 1971

MOY YA LIM YAO alias EDILBERTO AGUINALDO LIM and LAU YUEN YEUNG, petitioners-appellants,
vs.
THE COMMISSIONER OF IMMIGRATION, respondent-appellee.

BARREDO, J.:

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 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: WON Lau Yuen Yeung ipso facto became a Filipino citizen upon her marriage to a Filipino citizen

RULING: 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 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.