Republic of the Philippines
SUPREME COURT
Manila
EN BANC
G.R. No. L-13177 August 31, 1960
SWEE DIN TAN, petitioner-appeellee,
vs.
REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES, oppositor-appellant.
Office of the Solicitor General Edilberto Barot and Solicitor C.S. Baradi for appellant.
Jose E. Fernandez for appellee.
BENGZON, J.:
The Solicitor-General has appealed from the decision of the Sulu court of first instance granting the petition of Swee Din Tan to be admitted as naturalized citizen of this country. He contends that contrary to legal requirements, petitioner had failed positively to prove his moral irreproachability.
We find a sounder reason to refuse citizenship: no lucrative employment. It is admitted that Swee Din Tan, with a wife and three children, is a mere employee receiving P200.00 a month only. We think that at the present valuation of the peso, petitioner may have an employment; but he has not a "lucrative" employment. It is true, we have held in some cases that an alien receiving P80.00, P140.00 or P250.00 a month had a lucrative employment; but the applicants therein received free board and lodging.1 It is also true that we admitted to citizenships persons whose income did not exceed P250.00 or P200.00 a month, with no lodging; however, the applicants therein had no children.2 At any rate, with the low purchasing power of our currency, a married man with three children to support can hardly make both ends meet, if he makes P200.00 a month only. Therefore, he may not be held to have a lucrative employment.
Decision reversed. Petition for naturalization denied, with costs. So ordered.
Paras, C.J., Padilla, Bautista Angelo, Labrador, Concepcion, Reyes, Barrera, Gutierrez David, Paredes, and Dizon, JJ., concur.
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