LIM YAO V COMMISSIONER OF IMMIGRATION

DOCTRINE: “An alien woman, upon her marriage to a Filipino citizen, becomes lawfully
naturalized ipso facto, provided that she does not possess all of the disqualifications enumerated in
CA 473.”

FACTS:
On February 8, 1961, Lau Yuen Yeung applied for a passport visa to enter the Philippines as a
non-immigrant. During the interview, she stated that she was a Chinese citizen living in Hong Kong
and desired to have a pleasure trip in the Philippines to visit her great grand uncle Lau Ching Pin for
one month. Immigration allowed her to stay from March 13, 1991 to April 13 of the same year. 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 provided. The date of
visit was extended till February 13, 1962. On January 25, 1962, she contracted marriage with Moy Ya
Lim Yao alias Edilberto Aguinaldo Lim a 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.

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 which states.

SEC. 15. Effect of the naturalization on wife and children. — Any woman,
who is now or may hereafter be married to a citizen of the Philippines, and who might
herself be lawfully naturalized shall be deemed a citizen of the Philippines.

Minor children of persons naturalized under this law who have been born in the
Philippines shall be considered citizens thereof.

A foreign-born minor child, if dwelling in the Philippines at the time of the

naturalization of the parent, shall automatically become a Philippine citizen, and a
foreign-born child, who is not in the Philippines at the time the parent is naturalized,
shall be deemed a Philippine citizen only during his minority, unless he begins to
reside permanently in the Philippines when still a minor, in which case, he will
continue to be a Philippine citizen even after becoming of age.

A child born outside of the Philippines after the naturalization of his parent, shall be
considered a Philippine citizen unless within one year after reaching the age of
majority he fails to register himself as a Philippine citizen at the American Consulate
of the country where he resides, and to take the necessary oath of allegiance.
 SECTION 4. That all inhabitants of the Philippine Islands continuing to reside herein
who were Spanish subjects on the eleventh day of April, eighteen-hundred and
ninety-nine, and then resided in said Islands, and their children born subsequent
thereto, shall be deemed and held to be citizens of the Philippine Islands and as such
entitled to the protection of the United States, except such as shall have elected to
preserve their allegiance to the Crown of Spain in accordance with the provisions of
the treaty of peace between the United States and Spain signed at Paris December
tenth, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight.

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. Everytime 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
judicata, 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.