Title
Lim vs. De la Rosa
Case
G.R. No. L-17790
Decision Date
Mar 31, 1964
Lorenzo Lim, born to a Chinese father and Filipino mother, claimed Filipino citizenship. Despite DOJ denials, courts upheld his citizenship, citing illegitimacy laws and consistent government recognition, enjoining alien registration.
citizenship
administrative officers
register as aliens
A

Case Summary (G.R. No. L-17790)

Factual Background

The spouses alleged that they were citizens of the Philippines. The respondents denied the claim as a matter of citizenship and asserted that Lorenzo Lim—known also as Lam Shun Hock—was not a Philippine citizen. They relied on Department of Justice opinions: Opinion No. 378 (Series of 1955) and Opinion No. 77 (Series of 1956), which had denied his claim of Philippine citizenship.

In response, petitioners invoked subsequent events supporting their citizenship claim. They stated that in 1957 Lorenzo Lim applied for a Filipino passport and was issued Filipino Passport No. 3590 based on a memorandum from the Citizenship Committee of the Department for Foreign Affairs dated May 24, 1957. They also pointed to an order for a change of name prayed for by Lorenzo Lim, granted by the Court of First Instance of Zamboanga City on July 19, 1957, which described the petitioner therein as a Filipino citizen. Petitioners further referred to Opinion No. 31 (Series of 1958), which denied their motion for reconsideration of the earlier Department of Justice opinions.

The parties later submitted an Agreed Statement of Facts on March 2, 1960. It established, among other matters, that on March 12, 1952 Lorenzo Lim alias Lam Shun Hock was investigated by the Office of the Immigration Inspector in Zamboanga based on his claim of Philippine citizenship; that the Bureau of Immigration referred the issue to the Secretary of Justice for opinion; and that the Department of Justice denied his claim in Opinion No. 378 (s. 1955) and denied reconsideration in Opinion No. 77 (s. 1956).

The agreed facts also recognized that the Department of Foreign Affairs later issued Lorenzo Lim a Filipino passport in 1967 (as stated in the text), pursuant to the May 24, 1957 memorandum; that in January 1957 he filed a petition for change of name, which the trial court granted on July 19, 1957; and that after the denial of the citizenship claim, the Associate Commissioner of Immigration ordered the Alien Control Officer in Zamboanga to require Lorenzo Lim to register as an alien within ten days.

Administrative Basis for the Demand to Register as Aliens

Respondents anchored the demand on the Alien Reg. Act 1900, asserting that it imposed on aliens residing in the Philippines a duty to register with the Bureau of Immigration, and that it devolved upon the Commissioner of Immigration the duty to enforce the law. They maintained that Lorenzo Lim had never been registered as a Chinese in the Bureau of Immigration, and that the same was true for Juana Alvarez after their marriage in January 1952.

The operative administrative consequence of the Department of Justice opinions was the order by the Associate Commissioner that the Alien Control Officer advise petitioners to register as aliens. Petitioners therefore resorted to judicial relief to prevent the enforcement of the administrative demand while they asserted their citizenship status.

Trial Court Proceedings and Judgment

After hearing, the Court of First Instance rendered judgment in favor of the spouses and permanently enjoined respondents from requiring petitioners to register as aliens. The trial court found that the spouses were Filipino citizens, either because of Lorenzo Lim’s illegitimacy, which made him follow his mother’s citizenship, or alternatively because, assuming Lorenzo Lim’s parents had been legally married, his mother’s reversion to Philippine citizenship upon the father’s death caused Lorenzo Lim to become Filipino.

In reaching that conclusion, the trial court regarded petitioners’ documentary evidence as sufficient and noted that the Solicitor made no objection to the documentary evidence presented. The trial court held that Lorenzo Lim was born on January 26, 1905, in Tulay, Jolo, Sulu, and that he was the illegitimate son of Lam Hing, a Chinese citizen, and Mora Alsia, a Filipino citizen whose parents had been both Filipinos. It found that Lam Hing died in 1907 and Mora Alsia died in 1908, and that the parents of Lorenzo Lim were never married. It further found that Lorenzo Lim had been “known to be a Filipino citizen” in dealings with government, including that he had been registered with the Bureau of Immigration “as an alien,” and that the evidence showed that Lorenzo Lim and Juana Alvarez Lim had been legally married.

The trial court also relied on additional factual indicia of citizenship that appeared in the record, as reflected in the narrative of evidence adopted by the judgment: that Lorenzo Lim elected Filipino citizenship after the passage of Com. Act No. 625 on July 18, 1941; that he was a registered voter in elections in 1928, 1931, 1934, and 1955; that he was issued a Filipino passport based on the May 24, 1957 memorandum; that the Court of First Instance in Zamboanga granted his change-of-name petition stating that he was a Filipino; that neither petitioner had ever been registered as an alien; and that a certificate of registration of his business name recited that he was a Filipino citizen.

Finally, the trial court discounted the Department of Justice opinions relied upon by respondents, stating that they did not have a conclusive character and that they were based on findings that the evidence then submitted was incompetent and unsupported.

Issues Raised on Appeal

Respondents appealed, assigning the following errors: first, that the lower court erred in finding that Lorenzo Lim was the illegitimate son of Lam Hing and Mora Alsia and, consequently, that he followed his mother’s citizenship; second, that it erred in finding that, in the present petition, the citizenship of petitioners could be determined; and third, that it erred in permanently enjoining respondents from requiring petitioners to register as aliens.

Underlying these assignments was the threshold legal question: what remedy should be available to a person claiming Philippine citizenship who was being compelled by administrative officers to register as an alien based on prior rulings or opinions of superior administrative officials.

The Parties’ Contentions on Remedy and Citizenship

Petitioners argued that injunction was the proper and adequate remedy. They contended that if the person claiming citizenship could show, establish, or prove that he was a citizen, then an injunction would protect the right against administrative enforcement that required or compelled registration as an alien.

Respondents maintained that the trial court’s findings on citizenship were erroneous and that the Department of Justice opinions should control, since those opinions had denied Lorenzo Lim’s claim of citizenship. They also insisted that administrative enforcement duties under the Alien Reg. Act 1900 justified the requirement to register as an alien in light of the Department’s determination.

Legal Basis and Reasoning of the Court

The Court affirmed the trial court’s disposition. It treated the petitioners’ evidentiary showing as sufficient to establish that the spouses were Filipino citizens, and it sustained the trial court’s factual conclusions on how citizenship attached to Lorenzo Lim.

The Court held that the trial court’s findings were supported by the record, including the documentary and testimonial matters presented as evidence without objection. It reiterated the basis for citizenship articulated by the trial court: Lorenzo Lim’s illegitimacy resulted in his citizenship following that of his mother; and, even assuming a different premise regarding the parents’ marital status, the mother’s reversion to Philippine citizenship upon the father’s death provide

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