Newsounds Broadcasting Network vs Dy

GR No. 170270 and 179411

April 2 2009
Prepared by Francisco Alba II

FACTS:

The petitioners in the case at bar are operators of AM and FM radio franchises known as Bombo
Radyo Philippines. In 1996, petitioners relocated their broadcasting stations and offices on a property
located in Cauayan City, Isabella. They experienced no difficulty in securing a Mayor’s permit for
establishing a commercial property on the land and such property was consistently classified as such
for taxing purposes. However, in 2002, the petitioners were not issued a renewal of their Mayor’s
permit due to the land classification apparently being agricultural. The zoning administration
requested the petitioners to secure an approved land conversion certification from DAR which would
supposedly prove that the land was converted from agricultural to commercial. After securing the
required document, they applied again for a Mayor's permit but their permit was not renewed due to
the document allegedly being invalid. Consequently, due to the lack of a Mayor's permit, their
establishment is ordered to be closed. The petitioners files this case invoking their freedom of speech,
of expression or the press.

Note that Bombo Radyo was aggressive in exposing widespread election irregularities in Isabela
against the respondent Dy. They were also employers of Grace Padaca rival of the Dys and Dy owns
the rival station.

ISSUE: W/N THE PRIOR RESTRAINT IS VOID?

HELD:
Different Prior Restraint
1. Content-neutral: concerned with the incidents of the speech, or merely controls the time place
or manner of speech
2. Content-based: restraint is based on subject matter of speech.

The case at bar is a content based restraint since it limited only to the Bombo Radio Station. Thus the
strict scrutiny test applies where the burden falls upon respondents as agents of government to prove
that their action do not infringe upon petitioners' constitutional rights. The burden lies in the
government to establish the need to infringe right.

The prior restraint is VOID since its motivated by ill political motives. There is no law that requires,
as respondents did, that an applicant for a mayor's permit submits either an approved land conversion
papers from the DAR showing that its property was converted from prime agricultural land to
commercial land.