Case Digest (G.R. No. L-9602)
Facts:
In the Matter of the Petition of Teotimo Rodriguez Tio Tiam to be Admitted a Citizen of the Philippines, G.R. No. L-9602, April 25, 1957, the Supreme Court En Banc, Bautista Angelo, J., writing for the Court. Petitioner-appellee Teotimo Rodriguez Tio Tiam filed a petition for naturalization in the Court of First Instance of Cebu seeking Philippine citizenship. During the trial the petitioner asked leave to present evidence to show that he had long since acquired Filipino status; the trial court allowed the proof and, on the strength of the evidence presented, declared him a Filipino citizen without requiring compliance with the two-year suspension prescribed in Republic Act No. 530. The Republic of the Philippines (oppositor and appellant) appealed that decision to the Supreme Court.The record shows petitioner was born in Cebu City on January 12, 1904 of Chinese parents and never left the Philippines. He married a Chinese woman and had eleven children; he allegedly voted in elections (the decision lists specific years), took an oath of allegiance on October 25, 1945 before the Court of First Instance of Cebu, never saw his wife or children register as aliens with the Bureau of Immigration, and served in the Cebu Guerrilla Command during the Japanese occupation as a second lieutenant under Gen. Macario Peralta, Jr. He represented himself a businessman with an average annual income of P20,000, owned several real properties in Cebu City, had elementary-level formal education, and his children attended government-recognized schools. He had no recorded conviction for crimes involving moral turpitude, professed belief in constitutional government, was not affiliated with subversive groups, did not practice polygamy, and was mentally and physically well; he spoke and wrote English, Chinese and Cebuano. He was investigated once by army authorities on charges of rebellion and multiple murder but was cleared.
The Government offered minimal contrary proof: testimony of Mauro Magsaysay, Chief of the NBI Cebu Office, that an NBI agent secured a sworn statement from one Sonia Tiu alleging an illicit relation with petitioner and the existence of an illegitimate child; Sonia Tiu did not appear to testify and the sworn statement was not formally offered in evidence. The trial court apparently relied on Roa v. Collector of Customs (23 Phil. 315) — a jus soli holding — in concluding petitioner was a Filipino by birth. On appeal, the Supreme ...(Pro-only)
Issues:
- Whether petitioner, born in the Philippines of alien parents, acquired Philippine citizenship at birth under the principle of jus soli as in Roa v. Collector of Customs, or whether that doctrine was overruled and therefore inapplicable to him.
- Whether petitioner qualified for naturalization and whether the trial court correctly granted him Philippine citizenship without requiring compliance with the two-year suspension under...(Pro-only)
Ruling:
- (Pro-only)
Ratio:
- (Pro-only)
Doctrine:
- (Pro-only)