DVMATORRES, JD-1D

Case Digest No.: 15

Case Title: Chan Teck Lao vs. Republic
Citation: 55 SCRA 1, 6

ISSUES:
Issue 1: To impose an additional burden for the first time to warrant the
denaturalization of a citizen whose naturalization was obtained after the most
exacting scrutiny not only by the lower courts but by this Tribunal, and especially
so after a long lapse of time, would be clearly to subject him to a risk that
certainly the Constitution, with its pledge of equal protection, cannot
countenance.
“WON a case on Naturalization may be reopened even though it was
already decided”
Held: NO, US cases which stand for the proportion that a naturalized
citizen is entitled to similar treatment as a native-born citizen except law provides
otherwise. If not, infringement of the equal protection of the laws. They are both
in equal footing, it does not mean that being naturalize, that you are a second
class citizen. There must be an end to litigations RES JUDICATA