1. Tanada v.

Tuvera, 146 SCRA 446 (1986)

Facts: Petitioners Lorenzo M. Tanada, et. al. invoked due process in demanding
the disclosure of a number of Presidential Decrees which they claimed had not
been published as required by Law. The government argued that while publication
was necessary as a rule, it was not so when it was otherwise provided, as when the
decrees themselves declared that they were to become effective immediately upon
approval. The court decided on April 24, 1985 in affirming the necessity for
publication of some of the decrees. The court ordered the respondents to publish in
the official gazette all unpublished Presidential Issuances which are of general
force and effect. The petitioners suggest that there should be no distinction
between laws of general applicability and those which are not. The publication
means complete publication, and that publication must be made in the official
gazette. In a comment required by the solicitor general, he claimed first that the
motion was a request for an advisory opinion and therefore be dismissed. And on
the clause “unless otherwise provided” in Article 2 of the new civil code meant that
the publication  required therein was not always imperative, that the publication
when necessary, did not have to be made in the official gazette.