PRIL – Nationality – 29

IN THE MATTER OF THE PETITION FOR ADMISSION AS CITIZEN OF THE PHILIPPINES. OH HEK HOW vs. REPUBLIC
OF THE PHILIPPINES (1969)

Doctrine: Our nationalization laws requires that the applicant solemnly swear that he renounces allegiance to
another country. Necessarily, the law governing the stripping of allegiance is not Philippine law but the laws of the
foreign country.

Facts:
1. Two years after the grant of Oh Hek How’s petition for naturalization, he filed a motion to be allowed to
take the oath of allegiance and be issued a certificate of naturalization.
a. CFI of Zamboanga issued an order directing that he be allowed to take an oath and for the
issuance of the certificate of naturalization.
b. Oh Hek How took an oath and a certificate was issued.
2. The Government filed a record on appeal and moved to cancel the certificate of naturalization on the
ground that the oath was taken and certificate issued before the finality of the order of the CFI
a. CFI granted the motion but also ordered Oh Hek How to take the oath anew.
b. Thereafter, the record on appeal was approved.

Issue: Whether the oath and certificate are valid

Ratio:
1. The oath and the certificate are invalid on the ground that the order on which they base their validity are
not yet final and executory.
2. Furthermore, Oh Hek How did not meet the requirement of lucrative income.
a. His net income from 1960-1961 was P3,945.65 and P5,105.79, respectively, or from about P330
to P425 a month. His income tax return for 1962, filed subsequently to the institution of this
case, showed a net income of P6,485.50 for that year, or about P540 a month. Considering that
petitioner has a wife and three (3) children, one of them of school age, at the time of the filing of
his application for naturalization, his aforementioned income is not a lucrative one.
3. Also, petitioner has not required from the Minister of the Interior of Nationalist China the permission
required by the laws thereof for a valid renunciation of his Chinese citizenship.
a. Oh Hek How: The requirement is not required under Philippine laws. The governing law is
Philippine law and not foreign law.
b. SC: Section 12 of Commonwealth Act No. 473 provides, however, that before the naturalization
certificate is issued, the petitioner shall "solemnly swear," inter alia, that he renounces
"absolutely and forever all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate" and
particularly to the state "of which" he is "a subject or citizen."
i. The question of how a Chinese citizen may strip himself of that status is necessarily
governed — pursuant to Articles 15 and 16 of our Civil Code — by the laws of China, not
by those of the Philippines. As a consequence, a Chinese national cannot be naturalized
as a citizen of the Philippines, unless he has complied with the laws of Nationalist China
requiring previous permission of its Minister of the Interior for the renunciation of
nationality.

Digested by Rea (A2015)