IN RE:  PETITION FOR CHANGE OF SURNAMES OF MINORS:  CESAR UN TO CESAR TIU, NORBERTO ON TO NORBERTO TIU, URSULINA ON TO URSULINA TIU. SUSANA RENDORA, PETITIONER, VS. REPUBLIC OF …

Under date of August 7,
1965, Susana Rendora filed below a
petition for authority to change the surname of her minor children known
as Cesar
UN, Norberto
ON and Ursulina ON,
to TIU – the surname of their father.

Thereafter, the lower court issued an order setting the hearing
of the petition on September 21, 1965, the same
having been published in accordance with law.

The Republic of the Philippines,
through the City Fiscal of Ormoc City, filed an
opposition to the petition on the following grounds:

1.    That considering the proximity of the date
set for the hearing of the petition, the court will not have acquired
jurisdiction over the case on that day, invoking in support of this ground, the
provisions of Section 3, Rule 104 of the Rules of Court;

2.    And that the newspaper in which the order of
the court was to be published was not of a general circulation.

The evidence shows that Cesar UN, Norberto ON and Ursulina ON are the children of petitioner Susana Rendora with TIU HONG, a Chinese citizen; that TIU HONG and
said children were registered with the Bureau of Immigration; that the surnames ON and UN carried by
the children are the same; that TIU
HONG is commonly known in the Chinese community of Ormoc City as YUTIAN ON;
that petitioner learned of the error in recording the surname of her children
only when they started going to school.

Upon the above evidence,
the lower court subsequently rendered the
following very uninformative decision:

“This is a petition for a change of name of Cesar Un to CESAR
TIU, Norberto On to NORBERTO TIU and Ursulina On to
URSULINA TIU filed by the natural guardian, Susana Rendora.

After the necessary publication in the “MORNING TIMES”,
no opposition has been filed either by the
City Attorney of Ormoc City or by the Solicitor General of the Philippines
although both of them were furnished a copy of the petition as early as
August 27, 1965.  City Fiscal Ramon O. de Veyra, appeared for the
Solicitor General to cross examine the witness presented by the petitioner.

It appears from the evidence presented that Cesar Tiu, Norberto Tiu and Ursulina Tiu as well as their
natural guardian, Susana Rendora, have been permanent
residents of Ormoc City for more than three (3) years
prior to the filing of this petition; that Susana Rendora
is the natural mother of Cesar Tiu, Norberto Tiu and Ursulina Tiu;

This petition was made for the purpose of giving the minors the
true family name of the father because the surnames Un
and On presently carried by said minors in their Alien Certificate of Registration
is a community
surname by which their father is known.

No creditors appear to be prejudiced by the change of name of Cesar
Un to CESAR TIU, Norberto On to NORBERTO TIU and Ursulina On to URSULINA TIU.

WHEREFORE, decision is hereby rendered in favor of petitioner
Susana Rendora with ACR No. A
88981 issued at Ormoc
City on January 13, 1961, changing the name of Cesar Un
with ACR. No. A 88982 issued at Ormoc City
on January 13, 1965 to
CESAR TIU, Norberto On with ACR. No. A
240316 issued at Ormoc City
on February 27, 1953 to
NORBERTO TIU and Ursulina On with ACR. No.
A-240317 issued at Ormoc
City on February 27, 1953 to URSULINA TIU.

Let copies of this decision be furnished
the Local Civil Registrar of Ormoc City.

City Attorney Ramon O. de Veyra and
Attorney Artemio Derecho
are notified of this decision in open court.

SO
ORDERED.”

The State appealed and prays for the reversal of the above
decision and for the dismissal of the petition, claiming that the lower court
had not acquired jurisdiction to hear the petition and that petitioners had
failed to prove a proper and reasonable cause to justify the change of their
respective surnames.

The record discloses that the birth certificate of Cesar UN gives
his name as Cesar ON HIA TIAN and that of his father as ON HIA TIAN (Exhibit
“H”); that the birth certificate of Norberto UN records his name as Norberto
TIAN and that of his father as ON HIO TIAN (Exhibit “J”), while the
birth certificate of Ursulina ON records the name of
her father as YUTIAN UN (Exhibit “I”).

It is to be borne in mind in this connection that, for legal
purposes, the true name of a person is that given him in the Civil Register,
and that for the purpose of a petition such as the one filed by petitioners,
what is or
may be changed is their true or official name as recorded in the Civil
Register.  Consequently, the publication
required by law, must give that true or official name of the petitioners to
enable the State to undertake the proper investigation regarding the truth of
the allegations made in their petition (Jesus Ng etc. vs. Republic, G.R. No.
L-20306, March 31, 1966).  As the order published in connection with the
present proceeding did not give the true or correct surnames of the
petitioners, said publication was rendered ineffective in law.

Testifying in support of the petition, Susana Rendora,
mother of the minors whose surnames are sought to be changed, testified that
she wants them “to bear the family name of TIU” but then proceeded to
answer the question of what was the family name of her husband by saying that
it was TIU HONG.  Moreover, the alien
certificate of her husband shows that he was also known under an alias, to wit,
TIU SONG PIN.  Moreover, while Susana Rendora claims to be married to TIU HONG, no marriage
contract was presented as part of the evidence, nor did her husband
testify.  Neither was evidence presented
that TIU HONG was authorized to use
the alias TIU SONG PIN, or that he is the same person as the one whose name was given in the birth certificates of
their children as YUTIAN UN, ON HIO TIAN and ON HIA TIAN.

Upon the foregoing, we are of the opinion and so hold, that the
evidence of record is utterly insufficient to support the decision appealed
from.

WHEREFORE, the decision appealed from is reversed and the petition filed below is hereby dismissed, without prejudice.

Reyes, J.B.L., Makalintal, Zaldivar, Ruiz Castro, Fernando, Teehankee,
Barredo, Villamor, and Makasiar, JJ., concur.

Concepcion, C.J., on official
leave.