Republic vs. Cesar Guy
G.R.
No. 41399
FACTS: August
18,1956, Cesar Guy filed with the Court of First Instance a petition to be
admitted as a citizen of the Philippines. The petition was given due course and
after hearing, the Court issued order granting the application for citizenship
of Cesar Guy. December 22, 1959, Two years later the trial court issued order
allowing Cesar Guy to take his oath of allegiance as citizen of the Philippines,
he took his oath the same day and then issued Certificate of Naturalization No.
27.
September
23,1964, the Solicitor General filed petition with the court for the
cancellation of the Certificate of Naturalization issued to Cesar Guy on the
ground that the same was obtained fraudulently or illegally.
--June 7,
1957 Cesar Guy filed with Bureau of Forestry a sworn application for the
issuance of an ordinary timber license where he stated that he was a Filipino
citizen though he was not.
--He was
found guilty of the crimes that demonstrating an utter lack of good moral
character and has ceased to possess the qualifications to be naturalized
citizen of the Philippines.
Cesar Guy
claimed that he acted in good faith in applying for an ordinary timber license
believing that he is already a citizen of the Philippines because of the
favorable decision on his naturalization case.
May
28, 1974, the trial court ordered the cancellation of Certificate of
Naturalization No. 27, previously issued to Cesar Guy, “in view of his conducts
which resulted in his conviction for the crimes of perjury and rape, acts
clearly indicative of his lack of one the important qualifications, that is
good moral character”.ISSUE: Whether or not the convictions of the appellant for certain crimes he committed after the probationary period is a valid ground for the cancellation of his Certificate of Naturalization.
HOLDING: Yes, because the fact that his convictions for the said crime were made after the 2 years probationary period and after the appellant had already been granted his citizenship unlike final decisions in actions and other proceedings in court, a decision or order granting citizenship to the applicant does not really become executory, and a naturalization proceeding not being a judicial adversary proceeding, the decision rendered therein is not res judicata, the certificate of naturalization may be cancelled upon grounds or conditions subsequent to the granting of the certificate of naturalization.
The crime of
perjury and rape undisputedly involves moral turpitude. Person convicted of
said offense cannot be said to be possessed of good moral character, an
indispensable requirement for one applying for Philippine citizenship. Hence, having
been able to obtain Philippine citizenship despite this misconduct, rendered
his acquisition thereof fraudulent and illegal. Consequently, the certificate
of naturalization issued to him under these circumstances was properly
cancelled by the court.
The
judgment appealed was affirmed.
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