Yu Kian Chie vs.

Republic of the Philippines

Facts:

Yu Kian Chie, a citizen of the Republic of China, filed a petition for naturalization before the
Court of First Instance, containing all the jurisdictional requirements, the pertinent portion of
which is hereby reproduced:

THIRD.— My trade or profession is that of an employee in which I have been engaged

since 1957 and from which I derive an average annual income of P3,000.00.

The OSG filed an "Opposition" claiming that the two witnesses of petitioner are not credible and
did not testify as to petitioner's good reputation and moral irreproachability.

The CFI granted the petition of Yu Kian Chie to be admitted as a citizen of the Philippines.

After the Solicitor General has perfected his appeal from the above judgment, but during the
pendency of the approval of the record on appeal, petitioner-appellee herein presented with the
lower court a "Motion to Reopen Case to Enable Petitioner to present Additional Documentary
Proof of his Income," claiming that his income has risen from P3,000.00 to P5,100.00 in 1960
and P5,200.00 in 1961. The increase in the income had been due to a little increase in the
salary, plus, the bonuses of P100.00 in 1960 and P1,000.00 in 1961.

Issue: WON petitioner was able to prove that he has a lucrative income.

Ruling: As admitted by the counsel of the petitioner, Yu Kian was only receiving P150.00, the
rest being in the form of allowances and bonuses which may or may not be given to appellee.
In other words, petitioner's employer was not duty bound to give such allowances and bonuses,
but must spring from purely voluntary actuations, conditioned to the circumstance that the
employer was making profits. When there are no profits, the allowances and the bonuses are
not given. It is not, therefore, safe to consider that the income of petitioner is P3,000.00 yearly,
or more. Insofar as the evidence is concerned, it becomes indisputable that petitioner's true
income is only P150.00, any additional thereof being purely contingent, accidental or incidental,
which amount does not come up to the category of a lucrative income, considering that the
petitioner is now a married man.

Accordingly, the petition of Yu Kian Chien for Philippine citizenship was denied.