IN THE MATTER OF THE PETITION OF WONG KIT KENG TO BE ADMITTED A CITIZEN OF THE PHILIPPINES. WONG KIT KENG, PETITIONER AND APPELLANT, VS. REPUBLIC OP THE PHILIPPINES, OPPOSITOR a…

At the trial of the case, some questions
were directed to petitioner-appellant on the Bill of Rights of the
Constitution, asking him. to mention some of the
provisions of the said Bill, and he answered that anyone “can live in any
place within the Philippines; that citizens can vote; that
citizens can choose the best man to any position by election.” To another
question he answered that the Executive Department can declare war with the
consent of the Supreme Court, and to another, that the members of the Supreme
Court and Congress can be subject to impeachment, etc.

On being asked to write down a
statement about the Constitution and thereafter to translate same to Chavacano,
he answered that he cannot write in Chavacano.

In arriving at the conclusion that
the petitioner does not possess the necessary qualifications, the court below
says:

“The Court believes that the
petitioner “Wong Kit Keng has not established, at the hearing of this
petition, that he has all the qualifications and none of the disqualifications
as provided for in the Revised Naturalization Law. The evidence of petitioner
to show that he has a fair knowledge of the principles underlying the
Constitution of the Philippines is rather inadequate as is shown
by a portion of the transcript of hearing embodied in the written Opposition of
the City Attorney. Likewise, his ability and knowledge to
speak and write ‘Chavacano’, the principal dialect which he claims to command,
is rather scanty as shown by Exh. ‘1’, wherein petitioner was not able
to translate into the Chavacano dialect the Constitutional provision written by
him as requested by the City Attorney in order to test his knowledge and
ability of the dialect.

“After carefully considering
the evidence presented by the petitioner, both oral and documentary, in support
of the petition; and the opposition thereto, the Court is of the opinion that
petitioner Wong Kit Keng does not possess all the qualifications under
Commonwealth Act No. 473, as amended and that he hag not complied with all the
requisites of the Naturalization Law, and therefore, hereby declare Wong Kit
Keng, not eligible for naturalization as a citizen of the Republic of the Philippines.”

In this Court petitioner-appellant
argues that the lower court erred in declaring (1) that petitioner-appellant
has an inadequate knowledge of the principles underlying the Constitution of
the Philippines, and (2) that
petitioner-appellant’s knowledge of Chavacano is scanty.

The brief for petitioner-appellant
quotes extensively from the record on the questions propounded by his attorney
and by the’ City Attorney, and We find that while he answered the questions
propounded by his lawyer, he could not answer correctly those propounded by the
City Attorney and the Judge. We are inclined to believe that
petitioner-appellant must have been trained to answer certain questions and
these he answered fairly; but as to those asked by the Judge and the City
Attorney, his answers were not correct. So it is with the questions directed to
him to prove that he has knowledge of a dialect and can write it.

It should be remembered that the
judge below had the opportunity to observe how the petitioner-appellant acted
and gave his answers. The manner in which a party answers the questions would
readily show his real knowledge or ability. Thus if he stammers, or hesitates,
or doubts his answers—these do not appear in the record, but are visible to the
presiding judge. And taking these circumstances into account, We can not find
anything in the record to enable Us to declare that the judge’s appraisal of
the knowledge of petitioner-appellant is incorrect, and that its finding that
petitioner-appellant does ‘not in fact possess all the necessary qualifications
for admission as a citizen is also incorrect.

WHEREFORE, the decision should be, as it is
hereby, affirmed, with costs against petitioner-appellant.

SO ORDERED.

Bengzon, C.J., Padilla, Bautista
Angelo, Concepcion, Reyes, J. B.L., Barrera, Paredes, Dizon, Regala and Makalintal, JJ., concur.