Navarro v Villegas

The City Mayor offered the Sunken Gardens, instead of Plaza Miranda, as
venue for an assembly.
Facts:1.

The Mayor of the City of Manila (Villegas) expressly stated his willingness
to grant permits for peaceful assemblies at Plaza Miranda during
Saturdays, Sundays and holidays when they would not cause unnecessarily
great disruption of the normal activities of the community and has further
offered Sunken Gardens as an alternative to Plaza Miranda as the site
of demonstration sought to be held thatafternoon.2.

The Mayor believes that a public rally at Plaza Miranda, as to compared to

one at the Sunken Gardens as he suggested, poses a clearer and more
imminent danger of public disorders, breaches of the peace, criminal acts,
and even bloodshed as an aftermath of such assemblies, and petitioner has
manifested that it has no means of preventing such disorders.

Ruling:
1. Every time that such assemblies are announced, the
community is placed in such a state of fear and tension that
offices are closed early and employees dismissed, storefronts
boarded up, classes suspended, and transportation disrupted,
to the general detriment of the public.
2. Petitioner has failed to show a clear specific legal duty on the
part of Mayor to grant petitioners’ application for permit
unconditionally. Thus, the Court denied the writ prayed for by
Navarro and dismissed their petition.