CASE DIGEST – CONSTI2

19. Navarro v Villegas 31S731

"In Case G.R. No. L-31687 (Navarro vs. Villegas), the Court issued a Resolution:

The respondent Mayor has not denied nor absolutely refused the permit sought by
petitioner.

As stated in Primicias v. Fugoso, 80 Phil. 75, respondent Mayor possesses reasonable

discretion to determine or specify the streets or public places to be used for the assembly in order to
secure convenient use by others and provide adequate and proper policing to minimize the risks of
disorder and maintain public safety and order.

Respondent Mayor has expressly stated his willingness to grant permits for peaceful
assemblies at Plaza Miranda during Saturdays, Sundays and holidays as long as it would not cause
unnecessarily great disruption of the normal activities of the community and the Court has offered
Sunken Gardens as an alternative to Plaza Miranda as the site of the demonstration sought.

Experiences in connection with present assemblies and demonstrations, respondent Mayor's

appraisal that a public rally at Plaza Miranda, as 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.

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.

The petitioner has failed to show a clear specific legal duty on the part of respondent Mayor
to grant their application for permit unconditionally. The Court resolved to DENY the writ prayed for
and to dismiss the petition.

Separate Opinions

VILLAMOR, J., concurring -The right to freedom of assembly is not denied; but this right is
neither unlimited nor absolute. It is not correct to say that the Mayor has refused to grant the
permit applied for; he offered an alternative which, in my opinion, is not unreasonable.

Two members of the Court, Castro and Fernando, find themselves unable to concur and vote
to grant the petition. The right to freedom of assembly while not unlimited is entitled to be accorded
the utmost deference and respect. If respondent Mayor premised his refusal to grant the permit as
sought by petitioner on a clear showing that he was so empowered under the criteria supplied by
Primicias W. Fugoso, then this petition should not prosper as petitioner himself did invoke such
authority. The grounds for his refusal are however, set forth thus in his letter of February 24, 1970
addressed to petitioner: "In the greater interest of the general public, and in order not to unduly
disturb the life of the community, this Office, guided by a lesson gained from the events of the past
few weeks, has temporarily adopted the policy of not issuing any permit for the use of Plaza Miranda
for rallies or demonstrations during week days."