IN RE PETITION FOR PHILIPPINE CITIZEN­SHIP, WILFREDO LIM ALIAS WILFREDO UY, PETITIONER AND APPELLEE, VS. REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES, OPPOSITOR AND APPELLANT.

On July 23, 1960 petitioner
Wilfredo Lim @ Wilfredo Uy filed a petition for naturalization with the
Court of First Instance of Oriental Negros, to which was attached the joint
affidavit of his character witnesses. 
After due publication, the petition was heard on the merits.

On June 20, 1961 the trial court issued an order granting the petition for naturalization and ordering that
the proper naturalization certificate be issued to petitioner, the order
providing further that it shall not become executory until after the lapse of
two years from the date of its
promulgation and after compliance with
the requisites prescribed by Republic Act No. 530.

On August 16, 1961 the Provincial Fiscal of Oriental Negros moved
for a reconsideration of the abovementioned order upon two grounds, namely, that petitioner had not satisfactorily
proved his alleged chinese
(nationalist) citizenship and
that his evidence was insufficient to
prove that he was gainfully employed as required by the Revised Naturalization
Law.  Finding the motion for re­consideration to be
well founded, the trial court set aside its order of June 20, 1961.

On
October 5 of the same year petitioner moved for a new trial on the ground of the alleged newly
discovered evidence enumerated in his pleading. 
Over the opposition of the Provincial Fiscal the trial court granted the
motion for new trial and set the case for the reception of the alleged newly discovered
evidence on September 11, 1961, and after receiving the same, on February 1962
said court issued a new order granting the petition for naturalization, the dispositive part of which reads as follows:

“WHEREFORE, the petitioner is GRANTED and it is ordered that the proper Naturalization
Certificate be issued to petitioner WILFREDO
LIM, which certificate shall be registered as required by Section 10 of Act No. 3753.  However, this Order shall
not become executory until after the lapse of two (2) years from the date of
promulgation and after complying with the requisites prescribed by Republic Act
No. 530.” (pp. 70-71, rec. on appeal).

The State appealed in due time from the last order and now prays
for a reversal thereof on the ground that the
trial court committed the following errors:

“I

THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN GRANTING A NEW TRIAL TO RECEIVE FORGOTTEN,
NOT NEWLY DISCO­VERED EVIDENCE.

II

THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN NOT HOLDING THAT PETITIONER USES AN ALIAS
WITHOUT COURT AUTHORITY AND IN VIOLATION OF LAW.

III

THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN HOLDING THAT PETITIONER HAS ACTUAL
EMPLOYMENT AND LUCRA­TIVE INCOME.

IV

THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN NOT HOLDING THAT THE PETITION WAS NOT
PUBLISHED IN A NEWSPAPER OF GENERAL CIRCULATION.

V

THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN NOT HOLDING
THAT THE CHARACTER WITNESSES HAD NO OPPORTUNITY TO OBSERVE PETITIONER’S CONDUCT.

VI

THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN GRANTING THE PETITION.”

Anent the first assignment of error, it is clear that the alleged
newly discovered evidence
presented by petitioner was not newly discovered but forgotten evidence; something that petitioner already knew or should have known at the time
he filed his petition for naturalization or at the time said petition was heard
on the merits.

As far as the second alleged error is concerned, petitioner
admits having used the alias WILFREDO UY in addition to his name WILFREDO LIM
appearing in his birth certificate.  His
character witnesses also knew him by either one of both names.  His school record also shows that he had been
using the name UY WILFREDO.

That petitioner used the alias mentioned above with­out proper
authority and had, in fact, never applied for such authority was openly
admitted by him.  (T.S.N. Espiri­tu, p.
90).

In relation to the issue raised in the third assignment of error,
petitioner tried to prove that he had a lucrative income as a purchasing agent
in Cebu City for the Lim Quico Trading. 
Said firm was owned by his father – who was not a Filipino citizen – was managed by his brother and was engaged in
the relatively small town of Jamalalud, Oriental Negros, in the business of buying
and selling corn mill.

As there is no sufficient evidence in the record to show that the
aforesaid trading firm needed a purchasing agent in Cebu City; considering further that petitioner’s alleged employment was not reported to the
Social Security System for coverage, and that the business in which the firm of
his father was engaged was a nationalized business, it is not
unreasonable to pre­sume that his alleged employment was fictitious, in­vented
exclusively to make it appear that petitioner had a lucrative income for the
purposes of his appli­cation for Philippine citizenship.

In view of the conclusions we have arrived at in connection with
the first three assignments of error, We do not deem it necessary to consider
and resolve the issues covered by the others.

WHEREFORE, the order appealed from is reversed and set
aside, with costs.

Concepcion, C.J., Reyes, Zaldivar, Fernando, Barredo, and Villamor, JJ., concur.

Makalintal and
Teehankee, JJ., in the result.

Castro, J., on official leave.