CELERINO YU SECO, PETITIONER AND APPELLANT, VS. REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES, OPPOSITOR AND APPELLEE.

Appeal by petitioner Celerino Yu Seco from the decision of the Court
of First Instance of Bulacan dismissing his petition for naturalization
on the ground that he had failed to file a declaration of intention.

As found by the Court below, petitioner was born on June 10, 1932,
in the municipality of Baliwag, province of Bulacan, of Chinese parents
Jose Yu Bundoc and Siu Sio. He is still single, and engaged in the
grocery store business in the town of Baliwag with a capital of about
P5,000. He is of good moral character and believes in the principles
underlying the Philippine Constitution. He has conducted himself in a
proper and irreproachable manner during the entire period of his
residence in the Philippines, both in his relations with the government
and with the community in which he lives. He speaks and writes English
and Tagalog.

However, the lower court, dismissed petitioner’s petition for the
reason that he did not file a declaration of intention, as required by
Section 5 of the Revised Naturalization Law. The court found that
petitioner had not proved that he was exempt from such requirement, in
that although he had established that he was born in the Philippines,
his exhibits, Exhibits “H” and “I” presented to show that he received
his elementary education in the Baliwag Elementary School and secondary
education in the Baliwag Institute, refer to “Celerino Yu” and not
Celerino Yu Seco y Sio, the name he stated in his petition. In this
appeal, petitioner urges that he had sufficiently established that he
is the same person named in Exhibits “H” and “I”; and the Solicitor
General agrees with him, admits that he is exempt from the requirement
of filing a declaration of intention and that his petition should be
granted, and did not even file an appellee’s brief.

We believe that there is a serious impediment to the validity of
these proceedings and to the granting of the petition for
naturalization. We note that while petitioner repeatedly asserted at
the trial in the court below that his real name is Celerino S. Yu and
that he has adopted the name Celerino Yu Seco for no other reason than
that he was required by the Bureau of Immigration to use that name in
his application for registration as alien, his petition was, however,
filed in the name of Celerino Yu Seco and accordingly, the publication
of the notice of the filing of said petition shows the name of Celerino
Yu Seco as the applicant and not Celerino S. Yu. We think this
publication does not afford sufficient notice of the filing of the
petition and is misleading to the public. The purpose of the
requirement of publication is “to apprise the public of the pendency of
the petition so that those who may know of any legal objection to it
might come forward with the information in order to determine the
fitness of petitioner for Philippine citizenship” (Ng Bui Kui vs.
Republic, 104 Phil., 957). If petitioner’s true name is Celerino S. Yu,
while the notices published give his name as Celerino Yu Seco, persons
who might have derogatory information against Celerino S. Yu might not
come forward with it in the belief that Celerino S. Yu Seco, the
applicant, is some one else. The purpose of the publication would thus
be defeated, and the road would be laid open to fraudulent subterfuges
through the use of aliases. Most of petitioner’s documentary
evidence to show that he is not disqualified for naturalization, like
his clearances from the tax, police, Constabulary, NBI and court
authorities all refer to Celerino Yu Seco, so that this evidence does
not prove that these officials have no record or information that would
render Celerino S. Yu unfit or disqualified from being naturalized as
Filipino citizen.

We hold that assuming that petitioner is known by both names,
Celerino S. Yu and Celerino Yu Seco, he should have made full
disclosure by applying for naturalization under both names.

It is thus unnecessary to determine at present whether or not
petitioner is exempt of the duty to file a declaration of intention.

Wherefore, the petition is dismissed, without prejudice to
petitioner’s filing of another application under his true names
Celerino S. Yu, alias Celerino Yu Seco. Costs against petitioner.

Paras, C. J., Bengzon, Montemayor, Bautista Angelo, Labrador, Concepcion, Barrera, and Gutierrez David, JJ., concur.