IN THE MATTER OF THE PETITION FOR NATURALIZATION OF JOSE GO (ALIAS JOSEPH GOTIANUY), PETITIONER AND APPELLANT, VS. ANTI-CHINESE LEAGUE OF THE PHILIPPINES AND FELIPE FERNANDEZ, OPPOSITORS AND APPELLEES; G.R. No. L-1563, August 30, 1949

TOPIC: Article 9. No judge or court shall decline to render judgment by reason of the silence, obscurity or insufficiency of the laws.

RATIONALE:

 It is the sworn duty of the judge to apply the law without fear or favor, to follow its mandate not to tamper with it. The court cannot adopt a policy different from that of the law. What the law grants, the court cannot deny.

FACTS:

1. Jose Go was born of Chinese parents on December 5, 1914, in Cebu City. 

2.  1929 he left for Hongkong and enrolled for three years in the De la Salle College of that city then he proceeded to the United States and continued his studies.

3. August 1940: He returned to the Philippines.

4.  He is married to Gim F. Lock, an American-born citizen of Chinese parents. He has no children. He speaks and writes English and the Visayan-Cebuano dialect.

5. He filed a petition for naturalization which was opposed by Atty. Vicente Sotto, in behalf of the so-called Anti-Chinese League of the Philippines, and Mr. Felipe Fernandez, a Filipino citizen residing in Cebu City consisting of the testimony of two political detainees named Pedro Gerona and Pedro Labra.

6. RTC denied his petition based on the proofs presented by the oppositors who testified that:

- they have seen him in November, 1943, selling to the Japanese Navy one Fairbanks-Morse motor and two truck tires. Pedro Gerona also testified that he saw the appellant on different occasions in the Normal School where the offices of the Japanese Kempei-tai were located.

- Pedro Labra also testified that appellant was a prominent member of the Chinese Association of Cebu City, which according to him donated to the Japanese Navy P50,000 in cash and some scrap iron, and

- that appellant frequently visited the offices of the Kempei-tai

7. Appellant Go vehemently denied all these and swore that from August, 1942, to August or September, 1944, the appellant lived in the barrio of Tupsan, Mambajao, Oriental Misamis. This was corroborate by Francisco Vibares, cousin of the witness, and that he came to know the appellant because he (witness) supplied appellant with goat's milk every day in his cousin's house.

8. The trial court declared that appellant lacked the qualification required by

- section 2 of Commonwealth Act No. 473, in that he had not conducted himself in a proper and irreproachable manner during the entire period of his residence in the Philippines in his relations with the with constituted government as well as the community in which he was living

- paragraph (f) of section 4 of Commonwealth Act No. 473, which disqualifies "persons who, during the period of their residence in the Philippines, have not mingled socially with the Filipinos, or who have not evinced a sincere desire to learn and embrace the customs, traditions, and ideals of the Filipinos."

Hence this petition.

ISSUE:

Whether or not Jose Go's petition for naturalization as a Filipino be granted.

RULING:

YES. Jose Go's petition for naturalization as a Filipino is GRANTED. 

The credibility of the testimony of the two witnesses who were both prosecuted for treason was not established. Pedro Labra, has been found guilty by this court and sentenced to life imprisonment. Said testimony was successfully rebutted by the appellant and his witness Francisco Vibares. Even assuming that he had transactions with the Japanese Navy and that he was a member of the Chinese Association of Cebu City, which allegedly donated P50,000 in cash and some scrap iron to the Japanese Navy, such transaction would not be a sufficient ground. to reject appellant's petition, specially if we take into consideration the clearance issued to him by the CIC. The trial court itself said that it was not convinced that the appellant was a spy of the Japanese, notwithstanding the efforts of the oppositors to prove that he was.

There was also no basis in the record for the finding that appellant had not mingled socially with the Filipinos or had not evinced a sincere desire to learn and embrace the customs, traditions, and ideals of the Filipinos. There is no opposition to the petition on that score. At the trial the appellant testified without contradiction that he has been a resident since birth and has constant contact with his friends in Cebu and he is more familiar with the customs and traditions of the Philippines and United States; same with his schooling in both countries.

The trial court's ruling stated that a more rigid policy in the process of naturalization should be adopted instead of just determining when the applicant succeeds in proving that he has all the qualifications and none of the disqualifications required by law and moved that it should be upon judges' discretion.

This was opposed by the SC. It is the sworn duty of the judge to apply the law without fear or favor, to follow its mandate not to tamper with it. The court cannot adopt a policy different from that of the law. What the law grants, the court cannot deny.

It was also proven by the Chinese Consulate General in Manila that the laws of China permit Filipinos to become citizens of that country.

SC Ruling: Judgment reversed. Appellant's petition for naturalization is hereby granted. The corresponding certificate of naturalization will accordingly be issued and registered in the proper civil registry as required by law. No pronouncement as to costs.