GR L 17391; (November, 1962) (Digest)
G.R. No. L-17391; November 29, 1962
IN THE MATTER OF THE PETITION FOR NATURALIZATION, CHUNG HONG alias JOSE VILLANUEVA, petitioner-appellant, vs. REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES, oppositor-appellee.
FACTS
Chung Hong, alias Jose Villanueva, filed a petition for naturalization. The Court of First Instance initially granted it but later reconsidered and denied the application. The lower court found that the petitioner failed to prove he was exempt from filing a declaration of intention, as he did not establish that two of his school-age children, Herminia and Jose Villanueva Jr., had finished their secondary education. The petitioner appealed, assigning as error the trial court’s denial of his motion to introduce additional evidence. He sought to prove on remand that Jose Jr. had since finished high school and that Herminia did not graduate due to her marriage after third year.
The petitioner testified to having eight children, all born in the Philippines. He admitted that not all children were timely registered with the Bureau of Immigration; Herminia and one other child were never registered, while the registration of several others occurred only in August 1958, long after his 1956 petition was filed. To prove his financial capacity, he presented a tax declaration for a property allegedly inherited, but the document was under his wife’s name alone, showed a low assessed value, and listed no improvements.
ISSUE
Whether the denial of the petition for naturalization was proper.
RULING
Yes, the Supreme Court affirmed the denial. The Court rejected the plea to remand the case for additional evidence on the children’s schooling, finding no adequate excuse for the petitioner’s failure to present such known facts during the trial. More critically, the record revealed stronger, independent grounds warranting denial of citizenship.
First, the petitioner failed to conduct himself in a proper and irreproachable manner as required by law. His failure to register his alien wife and children with the Bureau of Immigration as mandated by the Alien Registration Act constituted a disregard of legal duties owed to the constituted government. This omission, particularly the non-registration of two children and the belated registration of others, demonstrated a lack of the requisite irreproachable conduct.
Second, the petitioner failed to satisfactorily prove he owned real estate worth at least P5,000.00, a statutory requirement for exemption from filing a declaration of intention. The tax declaration he submitted was insufficient and contradictory; it was in his wife’s name, assessed at a much lower value, and showed no improvements, casting grave doubt on his claim of ownership and the property’s worth. These fatal defects in the petition rendered any remand for additional evidence on the schooling issue a mere empty formality. The denial of naturalization was therefore affirmed.