NG HIAN V.

COLLECTOR OF CUSTOMS
34 PHIL248 (1916)

FACTS: Marcosa S. Dy Jiongco, together with two children, Ng Tio and Ng

Hian, arrived at the port of Manila on October 30, 1915. Jiongco was born in
the Philippines of a Filipino mother and a Chinese father. She was married
to a Chinese by the name of Ng Chion Tue, who, before his marriage to her,
has been married to a Chinese woman with whom he had two children. Ng
Hian and one Ng Guan. After the death of the Chinese wife of Ng Chion Tue,
the latter was legally married to Jiongco. Jiongco, being the stepmother of
Ng Hian, adopted and brought him to the Philippines to study.
The Board of Special Inquiry refused Ng Hian the right to enter the
Philippines.
ISSUE: Whether or not the minor Ng Hian, being an adopted son of a
person who has a right to enter the Philippines, also has the same right.
HELD: YES! In the case of Ex parte Fong Yim, the court held that:
A Chinese merchant domiciled in the United States has the right to bring
into this country with his wife minor children legally adopted by him in
China, where it is shown that the adoption was bona fide, and that the
children have lived as members of his family and have been supported by
him for several years. Upon the theory, therefore, that Ng Hian had been
adopted by his stepmother, and upon the theory that she has a right to enter
territory of the United States, without objection, we are of the opinion and
so hold that Ng Hian has a right to enter the territory of the Philippine
Islands as her adopted son. Therefore the judgment of the lower court is
hereby affirmed
POE-LLAMANZARES V. COMELEC, ET AL.
GR 221697; GR 221698-700 (MARCH 8, 2016)

FACTS: In her COC for presidency for the May 2016 elections, Grace Poe
declared that she is a natural-born citizen and that her residence in the
Philippines up to the day before 9 May 2016 would be 10 years and 11
months counted from 24 May 2005.
May 24, 2005 was the day she came to the Philippines after deciding to stay
in the PH for good. Before that however, and even afterwards, she has been
going to and fro between US and Philippines. She was born in 1968, found
as newborn infant in Iloilo, and was legally adopted. She immigrated to the
US in 1991 and was naturalized as American citizen in 2001. On July 18,
2006, the BI granted her petition declaring that she had reacquired her
Filipino citizenship under RA 9225. She registered as a voter and obtained
a new Philippine passport. In 2010, before assuming her post as an
appointed chairperson of the MTRCB, she renounced her American

citizenship to satisfy the RA 9225 requirement . From then on, she stopped
using her American passport.
Petitions were filed before the COMELEC to deny or cancel her candidacy
on the ground particularly, among others, that she cannot be considered a
natural-born Filipino citizen since she cannot prove that her biological
parents or either of them were Filipinos. The COMELEC en banc
cancelled her candidacy on the ground that she is in want of citizenship and
residence
requirements,
and
that
she
committed
material
misrepresentations in her COC.
On certiorari, the SC reversed the ruling and held (9-6 votes) that Poe is
qualified as a candidate for Presidency.
ISSUES: 1. Whether or not Grace Poe satisfies the 10-year residency
requirement
2. Whether or not Grace Poe is a natural-born Filipino Citizen.
HELD: 1. YES! Grace Poe satisfied the requirements of animus manendi
coupled with animus revertendi in acquiring a new domicile.
Grace Poes domicile had been timely changed as of May 24, 2005, and not
on July 18, 2006 when her application under RA 9225 was approved by the
BI. COMELECs reliance on cases which decree that an aliens stay in the
country cannot be counted unless she acquires a permanent resident visa or
reacquires her Filipino citizenship is without merit. Such cases are
different from the circumstances in this case, in which Grace Poe presented
an overwhelming evidence of her actual stay and intent to abandon
permanently her domicile in the US. Coupled with her eventual application
to reacquire Philippine citizenship and her familys actual continuous stay in
the Philippines over the years, it is clear that when Grace Poe returned on
May 24, 2005, it was for good.
2. YES! Grace Poe might be and is considerably a natural-born Filipino. For
that, she satisfies one of the constitutional requirements that only naturalborn Filipinos may run for presidency.
First, there is a high probability that Grace Poes parents are Filipinos. Her
physical features are typical of Filipinos. The fact that she was abandoned
as an infant in a municipality where the population of the Philippines is
overwhelmingly Filipinos such that there would be more than 99% chance
that a child born in such province is a Filipino is also a circumstantial
evidence of her parents nationality. That probability and the evidence on
which it is based are admissible under Rule 128, Section 4 of the Revised
Rules on Evidence. To assume otherwise is to accept the absurd, if not the
virtually impossible, as the norm.
Third, that foundlings are automatically conferred with natural-born
citizenship is supported by treaties and the general principles of
international law. Although the Philippines is not a signatory to some of
these treaties, it adheres to the customary rule to presume foundlings as
having born of the country in which the foundling is found.