Professional Documents
Culture Documents
It came to pass that a response from a clamor of harbour pilots for an increase in pilotage
rates was given by the then President Marcos through the issuance of an E.O No. 1088
“PROVIDING FOR UNIFORM AND MODIFIED RATES FOR PILOTAGE SERVICES
RENDERED TO FOREIGN AND COASTWISE VESSELS IN ALL PRIVATE AND PUBLIC
PORTS. The executive order increased substantially the rates of the existing pilotage
fees previously fixed by the PPA.” During that time the President was exercising
legislative power and was authorized
However, PPA was reluctant to enforce the same arguing that it was issued hastily and it
was just an Administrative Order whereby PPA has the power to revised EO 1088 which it
did so by issuing A.O. No. 43-86, which fixed lower rates of pilotage fees, and even
entirely left the fees to be paid for pilotage to the agreement of the parties to a
contract..
Issue: Is E.O. No. 1088 an Administrative Order and by virtue of which PPA has the power
to modify the same.
It is not an answer to say that E.O. No. 1088 should not be considered a statute
because that would imply the withdrawal of power from the PPA. What determines
whether an act is a law or an administrative issuance is not its form but its nature.
Here, as we have already said, the power to fix the rates of charges for services,
including pilotage service, has always been regarded as legislative in character.
(Note: Bold letters are copied from the Original Supreme Court decision)