Art.

127 – Expulsion

G.R. No. L-14639 March 25, 1919

ZACARIAS VILLAVICENCIO vs. JUSTO LUKBAN
MALCOLM, J.:

Facts:
The Mayor of the city of Manila, Justo Lukban, for the best of all reasons, to exterminate vice,
ordered the segregated district for women of ill repute, which had been permitted for a number of
years in the city of Manila, closed.

Between October 16 and October 25, 1918, the women were kept confined to their houses in the
district by the police.

During this period, the city authorities quietly perfected arrangements with the Bureau of Labor
for sending the women to Davao, Mindanao, as laborers; with some government office for the
use of the coastguard cutters Corregidor and Negros, and with the Constabulary for a guard of
soldiers.

At about midnight of October 25, the police, acting to orders from the Chief of Police, Anton
Hohmann and the Mayor of the city of Manila, Justo Lukban, descended upon the houses,
hustled some 170 inmates into patrol wagons, and placed them aboard the steamers that awaited
their arrival.

The women were given no opportunity to collect their belongings, and apparently were under the
impression that they were being taken to a police station for an investigation. They had no
knowledge that they were destined for a life in Mindanao. They had not been asked if they
wished to depart from that region and had neither directly nor indirectly given their consent to
the deportation.

The involuntary guests were received on board the steamers by a representative of the Bureau of
Labor and a detachment of Constabulary soldiers. The two steamers with their unwilling
passengers sailed for Davao during the night of October 25.

The vessels reached their destination at Davao on October 29. The women were landed and
receipted for as laborers by Francisco Sales, provincial governor of Davao, and by hacendero
Feliciano Yñigo and Rafael Castillo. The governor and the hacendero Yñigo, had no previous
notification that the women were prostitutes who had been expelled from the city of Manila.
Issue: Whether or not the Mayor of the city of Manila, Justo Lukban and the Chief of Police has
the authority of law to expel the women who worked as prostitutes from the City of Manila to
another distant locality within the Philippine Islands?

Ruling: No, the Mayor of the city of Manila nor the Chief of Police is not authorized by law or
any order to expel the women from the City of Manila. Only by virtue of the judgment of a
court, can order a person to change his residence as illustrated in ejectment proceedings,
expropriation proceedings and in the penalty of destierro.

The court awarded the granting the writ of habeas corpus that included all of the women who
were sent away from Manila to Davao, directing Justo Lukban, Mayor of the city of Manila,
Anton Hohmann, chief of police of the city of Manila, Francisco Sales, governor of the province
of Davao, and Feliciano Yñigo, to bring the women, alleged to be deprived of their liberty,
before the court in Manila, unless the women should, in written statements voluntarily made
before the judge of first instance of Davao or the clerk of that court, renounce the right, or unless
the respondents should demonstrate some other legal motives that made compliance impossible.

Ratio: The intentions of the Mayor of the city of Manila. to suppress the social evil was
commendable, unfortunately his methods were unlawful. There is no law, order, or regulation,
which even hints at the right of the Mayor of the city of Manila or the chief of police of that city
to force citizens of the Philippine Islands to change their domicile from Manila to another
locality. The one hundred and seventy women isolated from society, sent out of Manila without
their consent and without any opportunity to consult with friends or to defend their rights, were
forcibly hustled on board steamers for transportation to regions unknown, that these women
despite their being in a sense lepers of society are nevertheless not chattels but Philippine
citizens protected by the same constitutional guaranties as are other citizens.

APPLICABLE LAW:

Art. 127. Expulsion. — The penalty of prision correccional* shall be imposed upon any public
officer or employee who, not being thereunto authorized by law, shall expel any person from the
Philippine Islands or shall compel such person to change his residence.

Two acts are punishable under Art. 127:

1. By expelling a person from the Philippines.
2. By compelling a person to change his residence.

Elements:
a. That the offender is a public officer or employee.
b. That he expels any person from the Philippines, or compels a person to change his residence.
c. That the offender is not authorized to do so by law.