IN THE MATTER OF THE PETITION OF BENITO LIM TO BE ADMITTED A CITIZEN OF THE PHILIPPINES, BENITO LIM, PETITIONER-APPELLANT, VS. REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES, OPPOSITOR-APPELLEE.

Appeal from a decision of the Court of First Instance of Batangas dated March
5, 1969 in its naturalization case 1209, denying Benito Lim’s
petition for naturalization.

The Solicitor General accepts “as substantially
correct” the following facts set forth on pages 2-3 of the brief of the
petitioner-appellant Lim:

“Benito Lim was born on August 15, 1943 in Batangas, Batangas, to Lim Chua and Ting Chu
Bee, both Chinese citizens (Exhibit M) and has all his life resided in said
place.  He had his primary and
intermediate education in the Chi­nese Kipsi Memorial
School and his high school education in the Golden Gate Colleges in Batangas, Batangas wherein he was
graduated in 1960 (Exhi­bits AA and BB). 
After finishing high school, appellant worked in the Batangas
Grocery and Dry Goods Store, starting as an employee until he was designated
manager in 1967 with a yearly income of Seven Thousand Two Hundred Pesos (P7,200.00) or Six Hundred Pesos (P600.00) monthly (Exhibit
DD).

“During his entire residence in the Philip­pines,
Benito Lim has been a good moral charac­ter, and has conducted himself in a
proper and irreproachable manner in relation to both the government and the
community in which he lives.  Believing
in the principles underlying the Philippine constitution, he is not opposed to
organized government or affiliated with any association or group of persons who
uphold and teach the doctrine opposing all organized government; he is not
defending or teach­ing the necessity or propriety of violence; personal
assault, or assassination for the success and pre­dominance of ideas.  The petitioner-appellant is single; he is not
a polygamist; neither does he be­lieve in moral turpitude nor any other
crime.  He is not suffering from mental
alienation or any in­curable contagious diseases.  He has socially mingled with the Filipinos,
is a member and director of the Batangas Lions Club
and has a sincere desire to learn and embrace the customs, traditions and
ideals of the Filipinos.  Benito Lim
speaks and writes both Tagalog and English.”

Resolving this appeal, it suffices for us to state that the
petition for naturalization was correctly denied, and
this upon the ground, inter alia, that
the petitioner has not complied with the requirements of sections 5 and 6 of
the Naturalization Law (Commonwealth Act 473 as amended).  The Chinese
Kipsi Memo­rial
School where the petitioner received
his primary and inter­mediate education is definitely a Chinese school, as its
name imports.  And altho
Exhibit AA for the petitioner, dated August 28, 1968, which is a certification
by Principal Luis G. Uy, states that the school
“is recognized by the Philippine Government, and that the enrolment of
this school is not limited to any race or nationality and Philippine history,
government and civics are also taught as part of the school curriculum,”
nevertheless there is no evidence that it was “regularly attended by a
sizeable number of Filipino students from whom applicant could have imbibed
Filipino customs and traditions,” in order to place him within the
exemption of the law (Lee Ng Len vs. Republic, L-20151, March 31, 1965, 13 SCRA
533; Te Poot vs. Republic, L- 20017, March 28, 1969,
27 SCRA 647-648; Pantaleon Sia
vs. Republic, L-20290, Aug. 31, 1965,14 SCRA 1009).  The petitioner-appellant not being exempt
from the filing of a declaration of intention, and having failed to file one
his application for naturalization was therefore vitiated by a fatal
jurisdictional defect (Sio Kim vs. Republic, L-20415,
Dec. 29, 1965, 15 SCRA 637-638), which rendered the entire proceeding null and
void.

Because of the foregoing, we do not reach the other issues posed
in this appeal.

ACCORDINGLY, the judgment a quo, denying
Benito Lim’s petition for naturalization is affirmed, at petitioner’s cost.

Concepcion, C.J., Reyes, J.B.L., Dizon,
Makalintal, Zaldivar, Fernando, Teehankee, Barredo, Villamor, and Makasiar, JJ., concur.