MOY YA LIM YAO alias EDILBERTO AGUINALDO LIM and LAU YUEN YEUNG, THE COMMISSIONER OF IMMIGRATION G.R.

No. L-21289 BARREDO, J FACTS: Lau Yuen Yeung, a Chinese residing at Kowloon, Hongkong, applied for a passport visa to enter the Philippines as a non-immigrant in order to visit her great (grand) uncle Lau Ching Ping. She was permitted to come into the Philippines and was permitted to stay for a period of one month. While in the Philippines, she contracted marriage with Moy Ya Lim Yao alias Edilberto Aguinaldo Lim an alleged Filipino citizen. Because of the contemplated action of respondent to confiscate her bond and order her arrest and immediate deportation, after the expiration of her authorized stay, she brought this action for injunction with preliminary injunction. At the hearing which took place one and a half years after her arrival, it was admitted that petitioner Lau Yuen Yeung could not write either English or Tagalog. Except for a few words, she could not speak either English or Tagalog. 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.' The Court a quo held that the petition cannot be sustained. Hence, this appeal. ISSUE: Whether or not the mere marriage of a Filipino citizen to an alien automatically confer on the latter Philippine citizenship. HELD: Yes. The leading idea or purpose of Section 15 was to confer Philippine citizenship by operation of law upon certain classes of aliens as a legal consequence of their relationship, by blood or by affinity, to persons who are already citizens of the Philippines. Whenever the fact of relationship of the persons enumerated in the provisions concurs with the fact of citizenship of the person to who they are related, the effect is for said person to become ipso facto citizens of the Philippines. "Ipso facto" as here used does not mean that all alien wives and all minor children of the Philippine citizens, from the mere fact of relationship, necessarily become such citizens also. Those who do not meet the statutory requirements do not ipso facto become citizens; they must apply for naturalization in order to acquire such status. What it does mean, however, is that in respect of those persons enumerated in Section 15, the relationship to a citizen of the Philippines is the operative fact which establishes the acquisition of Philippine citizenship by them. Necessarily, it also determines the point of time at which such citizenship commences. Regarding the steps that should be taken by an alien woman married to a Filipino citizen in order to acquire Philippine citizenship, the procedure followed in the Bureau of Immigration is as follows: The alien woman must file a petition for the cancellation of her alien certificate of registration alleging, among other things, that she is married to a Filipino citizen and that she is not disqualified from acquiring her husband's citizenship pursuant to section 4 of Commonwealth Act No. 473, as amended. Upon the filing of said petition, which should be accompanied or supported by the joint affidavit of the petitioner and her Filipino husband to the effect that the petitioner does not belong to any of the groups disqualified by the cited section from becoming naturalized Filipino citizen, the Bureau of Immigration conducts an investigation and thereafter promulgates its order or decision granting or denying the petition. October 4, 1971