Case Digest (G.R. No. L-17790)
Facts:
Lorenzo Lim and Juana Alvarez Lim v. Francisco de la Rosa, as Asst. Commissioner of Immigration and Jovito Palattao, as Alien Control Officer, G.R. No. L-17790, March 31, 1964, Supreme Court En Banc, Padilla, J., writing for the Court.Petitioners Lorenzo Lim and Juana Alvarez Lim sought to enjoin respondents Francisco de la Rosa (Assistant Commissioner of Immigration) and Jovito Palattao (Alien Control Officer, Zamboanga City) from requiring them to register as aliens. They filed the petition in the Court of First Instance of Manila and obtained a writ of preliminary injunction upon posting bond. Respondents defended on the ground that the Department of Justice had issued opinions (No. 378, s. 1955 and No. 77, s. 1956) denying petitioner Lorenzo Lim’s claim to Philippine citizenship, and thus Immigration officials were acting on those rulings.
The parties filed an Agreed Statement of Facts (submitted 2 March 1960) recounting key documentary evidence. It showed that petitioner Lorenzo Lim (born Lam Shun Hock, Jan. 26, 1905, Tulay, Jolo, Sulu) was alleged to be the son of Lam Hing (a Chinese national) and Mora Alsia (a Filipino). The parents were reported not to have been married; Lam Hing died in 1907 and Mora Alsia in 1908. The agreed facts set out numerous exhibits: election papers showing an 18 July 1941 election of Filipino citizenship after the passage of Commonwealth Act No. 625; multiple voter registrations (1928, 1931, 1934, 1955); birth and baptismal certificates of Lim’s children identifying them as Filipino; a 1957 memorandum of the DFA Citizenship Committee and issuance of Filipino Passport No. 3590; a 1957 Court of First Instance (Zamboanga City) order granting a change of name that described petitioner as a Filipino; and affidavits and local certificates attesting to the loss of pre-war civil records and to the Filipino parentage and civic acts of petitioner. The agreed facts also showed that petitioner and his wife had never been registered as aliens by the Bureau of Immigration.
Following hearing, the trial court held that the spouses were Filipino citizens: either because Lorenzo Lim was illegitimate and therefore followed his mother’s citizenship, or, alternatively, because even if his parents had been married, his mother’s reversion ...(Subscriber-Only)
Issues:
- Did the trial court err in finding that petitioner Lorenzo Lim was illegitimate and therefore followed the citizenship of his mother?
- Could the trial court properly determine the question of petitioner's citizenship in the present action despite prior Department of Justice opinions?
- Was the grant of a permanent injunction enjoining respondents from requiring petitione...(Subscriber-Only)
Ruling:
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Ratio:
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Doctrine:
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