Chiongbian Cal Digest

G.R. No.
L-2007 January 31, 1949
WILLIAM CHIONGBIAN, petitioner,

vs.
ALFREDO DE LEON, in his capacity as Commissioner of Customs, JOSE GALLOFIN, in his capacity as Collector of
Customs of the Port of Cebu, and VICENTE DE LA CRUZ, in his capacity as General Manager of the Philippine
Shipping Administration, respondents: PHILIPPINE SHIPOWNERS' ASSOCIATION, intervenor.
MORAN, C.J.:
FACTS:
This is a petition seeking to permanently prohibit respondent Customs Officials from cancelling the registration certificates of
petitioner's vessels, and respondent Philippine Shipping Administration from rescinding the sale of three vessels to
petitioner.
The primary basis for respondents' and intervenor's acts is the allegation that petitioner is not a Filipino citizen and therefore
not qualified by law to operate and own vessels of Philippine registry. The Philippine Shipping Administration also alleges
that petitioner violated the contract of sale of three vessels executed between them, on the ground of misrepresentation,
petitioner having alleged in said contract that his father was a naturalized Filipino citizen. The Philippine Shipowners'
Association was later allowed to intervene and it filed its answer against the petitioner.
ISSUE:
Whether or Not Petitioner William Chiongbian is a Filipino citizen.
HELD:
Supreme Court ruled that he is a Filipino Citizen.
By virtue of Article IV of the Constitution which provides:
SECTION 1. The following are citizens of the Philippines:
(2) Those born in the Philippine Islands of foreign parents who, before the adoption of this Constitution, had been
elected to public office in the Philippine Islands.
In the case at bar, Victoriano Chiongbian, father of herein petitioner, having been elected to a public office in the Philippines
before the adoption of the Constitution, became a Filipino citizen by virtue of Article IV, section 1, subsection 2 of the
Constitution. William Chiongbian, the herein petitioner, who was then a minor, also became a Filipino citizen by reason of
subsection 3 (Article IV) of the Constitution, his father having become a Filipino citizen upon the adoption of said
Constitution. This is also in conformity with the settled rule of our jurisprudence that a legitimate minor child follows the
citizenship of his father.
As to the first argument of the respondent: subsection was adopted by the Constitutional Convention merely to grant Filipino
citizenship to Delegate Caram is that members of the Constitutional Convention could not have dedicated a provision of our
Constitution merely for the benefit of one person without considering that it could also affect others. Also, they adopted
subsection 2, they permitted, if not willed, that said provision should function to the full extent of its substance and its terms,
not by itself alone, but in conjunction with all other provisions of that great document.
Secondly, respondents argued that the original draft of said subsection 2 contained the phrase — "and their descendants,"
— which was deleted from the final draft, thus showing that this privilege of citizenship was intended to be strictly personal
to the one who had been elected to public office and did not extend to his descendants. However SC ruled that mere
deletion of the phrase — "and their descendants," — is not determinative of any conclusion. It could have been done
because the learned framers of our Constitution considered it superfluous, knowing full well that the meaning of such a
phrase was adequately covered by subsection 3.
Lastly, Respondents' allegation that the petitioner violated the contract of sale with the Philippine Shipping Administration on
the ground of misrepresentation is without merit and that such was not a deliberate misrepresentation but an error and in
which any person not versed in the law is prone to commit. It is clear that petitioner merely meant that his father was a
Filipino citizen by operation of law and not by birth.
Petition for the issuance of the writ of prohibition is hereby granted. No costs.

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G.R. No.

L-2007 January 31, 1949

WILLIAM CHIONGBIAN, petitioner,

By virtue of Article IV of the Constitution which provides:

SECTION 1. The following are citizens of the Philippines:

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