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Republic of the Philippines
SUPREME COURT
Manila

EN BANC

G.R. No. L-1675             July 30, 1949

LOCK BEN PING (alias JOSEPH LOCK BEN PING), petitioner-appellee,
vs.
THE REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES, oppositor-appellant.

Assistant Solicitor General Ruperto Kapunan, Jr., and Solicitor Lucas Lacson for oppositor-appellant.
Ricardo Reyes for petitioner-appellee.

PARAS, J.:

This is an appeal from a judgment of the Court of First Instance of Cebu granting the petition for naturalization as a Filipino citizen of Lock Ben Ping alias Joseph Lock Ben Ping.

The petitioner is a citizen or subject of China, his legal qualifications to become a Filipino citizen is not questioned, and the only contention raised by the Solicitor General in his brief refers to the alleged failure of the petitioner to establish by competent evidence that under the laws of his country Filipinos may become naturalized citizens or subjects thereof. Specifically, it is insisted for the appellant that the purported copy of the Chinese Naturalization Law (presented in evidence by the petitioner) should no have been considered by the lower court, because it was certified to merely by the Chinese Consul in the Philippines who is not the custodian of the original law. We need not pass upon this proposition, for "this Court has already accepted it is a fact in previous naturalization cases that the laws of China permit Filipinos to naturalize in that country." (Yee Bo Mann vs. Republic of the Philippines, G. R. No. L-1606, May 28, 1949.)

The appealed judgment is therefore affirmed, without costs. So ordered.

Moran, C.J., Ozaeta, Feria, Bengzon, Padilla, Tuason, Montemayor and Reyes, JJ., concur.

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