Title
Shee vs. Bengzon
Case
G.R. No. L-5300
Decision Date
Oct 30, 1953
Mah Shu Fong, admitted as a minor immigrant, faced deportation due to his mother’s fraudulent entry. The Supreme Court ruled against deportation, citing equitable grounds and the mother’s validated residence.
deportation proceedings
irregular admission
separation from mother

Case Summary (G.R. No. L-5300)

Factual Background

In 1936, petitioner arrived in the Philippines as the wife of a resident Chinese merchant. She was issued landing certificate of residence No. 122881, dated June 25, 1936. When she entered, she brought her second child. Her oldest son, Mah Shu Fong, remained in China.

Up to the death of her husband in 1944, three more children were born to petitioner and lived with her in the Philippines. On September 24, 1947, Mah Shu Fong, then seventeen years of age, arrived in the Philippines carrying the required travel papers and a visa issued by the Philippine Vice-Consul at Hongkong. After an investigation by the Board of Special Inquiry of the Bureau of Immigration, the minor was allowed to land as a preference quota immigrant, and he was issued immigrant certificate of residence No. 26143.

Two years later, on July 14, 1949, a warrant was issued for the minor’s arrest on the ground that, at the time of his entry on September 24, 1947, his mother was not lawfully admitted into the Philippines for permanent residence. After the minor’s arrest, the Board of Commissioners of Immigration investigated the charge, with the minor represented by counsel. Based on the evidence presented, the Board found the charge to be well founded and ordered deportation. Acting on the Board’s recommendation, respondent issued a warrant for the minor’s deportation, which then prompted the habeas corpus petition.

The evidence further showed that Mah Shu Fong was a Chinese citizen admitted on October 14, 1947 by virtue of a preference quota visa issued to him. The issuance of the visa depended on the claim that he was the minor child of Lam Shee, who herself had been admitted for permanent residence on the representation that she was the wife of a resident merchant named Ham E. It later turned out that Lam Shee was not the real wife of Ham E, but instead was married to another Chinese by the name of Mah Sek. The court treated this misrepresentation as disqualifying Lam Shee from landing as the lawful wife of a Chinese resident merchant, and it concluded that her minor son “was not lawfully admissible at the time of entry” under section 37-a, paragraph 2, of the Philippine Immigration Act of 1940.

Trial Court Proceedings

After due hearing on the habeas corpus petition, the Court of First Instance of Manila denied the petition. It held that the law applicable was section 37-a, paragraph 2, and it sustained the deportation process. Costs were imposed against petitioner.

The Parties’ Contentions

Petitioner maintained that her son should not be deported, and she challenged the legal basis used to place Mah Shu Fong under the deportation consequences of her own fraudulent entry.

Respondent’s position, as stated in the answer, was that the minor was subject to deportation because he was “not lawfully admissible at the time of entry” by reason of section 37-a, paragraph 2 of the Philippine Immigration Act of 1940, tied to the fact that Lam Shee’s admission had been attended by misrepresentation.

Legal Basis and Reasoning

The Court agreed with the lower court on the applicable provision, holding that section 37-a, paragraph 2 governed the situation. The Court reasoned that, on the facts established before immigration officials, the minor was not lawfully admissible when he entered on September 24, 1947, because his admission rested on misrepresentation made by his mother. It held that the phrase “not lawfully admissible” in section 37-a, paragraph 2 was broad enough to include illegal entries, not only the specific cases enumerated as excluded classes in section 29-a.

At the same time, the Court stated that even assuming petitioner’s counsel’s narrower view was correct, the case would still fall within section 29-a, paragraph 17, which covers persons not properly documented under the Act. The Court pointed to the irregularity that tainted the minor’s credentials upon entry.

However, the Court identified an important circumstance that made the case inequitable and placed it beyond the deportation consequence of the mother’s fraudulent act. The Court held that the mother could no longer be the subject of deportation proceedings because more than five years had already elapsed from the date of her admission. The Court emphasized that the irregularity was disclosed by Lam Shee herself in a spontaneous admission during the investigation connected with her child’s landing on September 24, 1947, and not through any coercive action by immigration authorities.

The Court further considered that immigration officials apparently treated the irregularity as not serious enough to bar the minor’s landing as a preference quota immigrant, noting that the minor was allowed to land “as a properly documented preference quota immigrant” as reflected in Exhibit D. Yet, two years later, immigration officials reverse

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