G.R. No. L-13393-95; November 29, 1958
Salani Una, petitioner, vs. Felisa C. Noche, et al., respondents.

FACTS

Petitioner Salani Una, originally a Chinese national, was issued a certificate of naturalization as a Filipino citizen by the Court of First Instance of Zamboanga in 1936. In 1940, the Attorney General, through the Provincial Fiscal, filed a petition for the cancellation of this certificate. The Court of First Instance granted the petition and cancelled Una’s certificate of naturalization. Una appealed this decision to the Court of Appeals. However, due to the war, the proceedings were suspended, and the records of the case in both the Court of First Instance and the Court of Appeals were destroyed. After the war, neither Una nor the Solicitor General took steps to reconstitute the records of the appealed case.
Meanwhile, Una filed several applications with the Public Service Commission (PSC) for operating truck services in Basilan Island. Initially, in Case No. 8807, his application was denied due to his citizenship status, but later, in Case No. 36366, the PSC granted his application, noting there was no final judgment cancelling his citizenship and citing land titles indicating his Filipino citizenship. In Case No. 75658, his petition for re-routing was also granted.
In 1957, respondent Felisa C. Noche, a TPU operator, moved to intervene in these three cases, seeking cancellation of Una’s authority on the ground that he was not a Filipino citizen. The PSC, in its orders dated January 3 and 21, 1958, granted Noche’s motion and cancelled all permits and certificates granted to Una, ruling that he failed to establish his Filipino citizenship because the appealed decision cancelling his certificate was never reconstituted and thus he remained an alien.

ISSUE

Whether the decision of the Court of First Instance cancelling Salani Una’s certificate of naturalization, which was appealed to but never reconstituted in the Court of Appeals, became final and conclusive, thereby depriving Una of his Filipino citizenship status.

RULING

No. The Supreme Court set aside the orders of the Public Service Commission. Applying the doctrine in Ambat vs. Director of Lands, the Court held that a judgment rendered before the war, in a case pending appeal, does not become final if the losing party fails to reconstitute the records within the prescribed period. The duty to reconstitute lies upon both parties. Since the Government, in whose favor the cancellation judgment was rendered, failed to ask for reconstitution, it impliedly waived its right to that favorable judgment. Consequently, the cancellation decision never attained finality. The only recourse left for the Government is to file a new petition for cancellation if it so desires. As the case stands, Salani Una should be deemed a naturalized Filipino citizen until his status is definitively settled by the courts. The provisional permit, certificate of public convenience, and authorization for re-routing previously granted to Una were ordered revived.