Professional Documents
Culture Documents
City of Manila v. Laguio GR No. 118127
City of Manila v. Laguio GR No. 118127
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* EN BANC.
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Same; Same; Same; Same; The police power of the City Council,
however broad and far-reaching, is subordinate to the constitutional
limitations thereon; and is subject to the limitation that its exercise
must be reasonable and for the public good.·The police power of
the City Council, however broad and far-reaching, is subordinate to
the constitutional limitations thereon; and is subject to the
limitation that its exercise must be reasonable and for the public
good. In the case at bar, the enactment of the Ordinance was an
invalid exercise of delegated power as it is unconstitutional and
repugnant to general laws.
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not be used for any reasonable purpose goes beyond regulation and
must be recognized as a taking of the property without just
compensation. It is intrusive and violative of the private property
rights of individuals.
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Same; Same; Same; Same; The rule is that the City Council has
only such powers as are expressly granted to it and those which are
necessarily implied or incidental to the exercise thereof.·The rule is
that the City Council has only such powers as are expressly granted
to it and those which are necessarily implied or incidental to the
exercise thereof. By reason of its limited powers and the nature
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TINGA, J.:
I know only that what is moral is what you feel good after
and what is immoral is what you feel bad after.
Ernest Hermingway
Death in the Afternoon, Ch. 1
J. Christopher Gerald
Bonaparte in Egypt, Ch. I
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3
Trial Court (RTC) of Manila, Branch 18 (lower court), is
the validity of 4Ordinance No. 7783 (the Ordinance) of the
City of Manila.
The antecedents are as follows:
Private respondent Malate Tourist Development
Corporation (MTDC) is a corporation engaged in the
business5
of operating hotels, motels, hostels and lodging
houses. It built and opened Victoria Court in Malate which
was licensed as a motel although duly 6
accredited with the
Department of Tourism as a hotel. On 28 June 1993,
MTDC filed a Petition for Declaratory Relief with Prayer for
a Writ of Preliminary Injunction and/or Temporary
Restraining Order7 (RTC Petition) with the lower court
impleading as defendants, herein petitioners City of
Manila, Hon. Alfredo S. Lim (Lim), Hon. Joselito L.
Atienza, and the members of the City Council of Manila
(City Council). MTDC prayed that the Ordinance, insofar
as it includes motels and inns as among its prohibited8
establishments, be declared invalid
9
and unconstitutional.
Enacted by the City Council on 9 March 1993 and
approved by petitioner City Mayor on 30 March 1993, the
said Ordinance is entitled·
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1. Sauna Parlors
2. Massage Parlors
3. Karaoke Bars
4. Beerhouses
5. Night Clubs
6. Day Clubs
7. Super Clubs
8. Discotheques
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9. Cabarets
10. Dance Halls
11. Motels
12. Inns
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Section 458. Powers, Duties, Functions and Compensation. (a) The sangguniang
panlungsod, as the legislative body of the city, shall enact ordinances, approve
resolutions and appropriate funds for the general welfare of the city and its
inhabitants pursuant to Section 16 of this Code and in the proper
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exercise of the corporate powers of the city as provided for under Section 22 of
this Code, and shall:
...
(4) Regulate activities relative to the use of land, buildings and structures
within the city in order to promote the general welfare and for said purpose
shall:
....
(iv) Regulate the establishment, operation and maintenance of cafes,
restaurants, beerhouses, hotels, motels, inns, pension houses, lodging houses,
and other similar establishments, including tourist guides and transports; . . .
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No. 1081, dated September 21, 1972, and General Order No. 1, dated
September 22, 1972, as amended, do hereby order and decree the classification
as a Commercial Zone of that portion of the Ermita-Malate area bounded by
Teodoro M. Kalaw, Sr. Street in the north; Taft Avenue in the east; Vito Cruz
Street in the south and Roxas Boulevard in the west. PROVIDED, HOWEVER,
That no permit shall be granted for the establishment of any new warehouse or
open storage depot, dump or yard, motor repair shop, gasoline service station,
light industry with any machinery or funeral establishment in these areas, and
PROVIDED, FURTHER, That for purposes of realty tax assessment on
properties situated therein, lands and buildings used exclusively for residential
purposes by the owners themselves shall remain assessed as residential
properties.
All laws, ordinances, orders, rules and regulations which are inconsistent
with this Decree are hereby repealed or modified accordingly.
This Decree shall take effect immediately.
Done in the City of Manila this 28th day of June in the year of Our Lord,
nineteen hundred and seventy-four.
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ARTICLE III
THE MUNICIPAL BOARD
...
Section 18. Legislative powers.·The Municipal Board shall have
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17 41 Phil. 103 (1920); see also Samson v. Mayor of Bacolod City, G.R.
No. L-28745, 23 October 1974, 60 SCRA 267.
18 RTC Records, p. 161.
19 Approved on 18 June 1949.
20 RTC Records, p. 160.
21 Supra note 18.
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22 Id., at p. 164.
23 Ibid.
24 Id., at pp. 165-169.
25 Id., at p. 84.
26 Id., at p. 453.
27 Rollo, pp. 6 and 72.
28 Id., at p. 6.
29 Dated 12 December 1994; Id., at p. 73.
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30 Id., at p. 2.
31 Supra note 13.
32 Rollo, p. 13.
33 Id., at pp. 190-201.
34 Id., at pp. 16, 194, 198.
35 Id., at pp. 19, 22, 25-26, 199.
36 Id., at pp. 150-180.
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38 See ART. 7, par. (3) of the Civil Code which reads, thus:
...
Administrative or executive acts, orders and regulations shall be valid only
when they are not contrary to the laws or the Constitution.
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45 Ibid.
46 Art. III, BILL OF RIGHTS, 1987 Const.
47 Ibid.
48 Id., at Sec. 9; See also CRUZ, ISAGANI A., CONSTITUTIONAL
LAW 97 (1998).
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49
reason, obedience to the dictates of justice, and as50such it
is a limitation upon the exercise of the police power.
The purpose of the guaranty is to prevent governmental
encroachment against the life, liberty and property of
individuals; to secure the individual from the arbitrary
exercise of the powers of the government, unrestrained by
the established principles of private rights and distributive
justice; to protect property from confiscation by legislative
enactments, from seizure, forfeiture, and destruction
without a trial and conviction by the ordinary mode of
judicial procedure; and to secure to all persons equal51
and
impartial justice and the benefit of the general law.
The guaranty serves as a protection against arbitrary
regulation, and private corporations and partnerships are
„persons‰ within the scope
52
of the guaranty insofar as their
property is concerned.
This clause has been interpreted as imposing two
separate limits on government, usually called „procedural
due process‰ and „substantive due process.‰
Procedural due process, as the phrase implies, refers to
the procedures that the government must follow before it
deprives a person of life, liberty, or property. Classic
procedural due process issues are concerned with what
kind of notice and what form of hearing the 53government
must provide when it takes a particular action.
Substantive due process, as that phrase connotes, asks
whether the government has an adequate reason for taking
away a personÊs life, liberty, or property. In other words,
sub-
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While the Court has not attempted to define with exactness the
liberty. . . guaranteed [by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments],
the term denotes not merely freedom from bodily restraint but also
the right of the individual to contract, to engage in any of
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tected by the
72
Constitution allows persons the right to make
this choice. Their right to liberty under the due process
clause gives them the full right to engage in their conduct
without intervention of the government, as long as they do
not run afoul of the law. Liberty should be the rule and
restraint the exception.
Liberty in the constitutional sense not only means
freedom from unlawful government restraint; it must
include privacy as well, if it is to be a repository of freedom.
The right to be let alone is the beginning of all freedom·it
is the most comprehensive73
of rights and the right most
valued by civilized men.
The concept of liberty compels respect for the individual
whose claim to privacy and interference
74
demands respect.
As the case of Morfe v. Mutuc, borrowing the words of
Laski, so very aptly stated
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Modality employed is
unlawful taking
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82 See Penn Central Transportation Co. v. New York City, 438 U.S. 104
(1978).
83 CHEMERINSKY , supra note 53 at pp. 623-626.
84 See Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council, 505 U.S. 1003 (1992).
85 Ibid.
86 CHEMERINSKY, supra note 53 at p. 166.
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. . . What does it signify? To quote from J.M. Tuason & Co. v. Land
Tenure Administration: „The ideal situation is for the lawÊs benefits
to be available to all, that none be placed outside the sphere
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of its coverage. Only thus could chance and favor be excluded and
the affairs of men governed by that serene and impartial
uniformity, which is of the very essence of the idea of law.‰ There is
recognition, however, in the opinion that what in fact exists „cannot
approximate the ideal. Nor is the law susceptible to the reproach
that it does not take into account the realities of the situation. The
constitutional guarantee then is not to be given a meaning that
disregards what is, what does in fact exist. To assure that the
general welfare be promoted, which is the end of law, a regulatory
measure may cut into the rights to liberty and property. Those
adversely affected may under such circumstances invoke the equal
protection clause only if they can show that the governmental act
assailed, far from being inspired by the attainment of the common
weal was prompted by the spirit of hostility, or at the very least,
discrimination that finds no support in reason.‰ Classification is
thus not ruled out, it being sufficient to quote from the Tuason
decision anew „that the laws operate equally and uniformly on all
persons under similar circumstances or that all persons must be
treated in the same manner, the conditions not being different, both
in the privileges conferred and the liabilities imposed. Favoritism
and undue preference cannot be allowed. For the principle is that
equal protection and security shall be given to every person under
circumstances which, if not identical, are analogous. If law be
looked upon in terms of burden or charges, those that fall within a
class should be treated in the same fashion, whatever restrictions
101
cast on some in the group equally binding on the rest.
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101 Nuñez v. Sandiganbayan, 197 Phil. 407; 111 SCRA 433 (1982).
102 CRUZ, supra note 59 at p. 125.
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351
powers of the city as provided for under Section 22 of this Code, and
shall:
...
(4) Regulate activities relative to the use of land, buildings and
structures within the city in order to promote the general welfare
and for said purpose shall:
...
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105
in Kwong Sing v. City of Manila that:
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These doctrines
109
still hold contrary to petitionersÊ
assertion that they were modified by the Code vesting
upon City Councils prohibitory powers.
Similarly, the City Council exercises regulatory powers
over public dancing schools, public dance halls, sauna
baths, massage parlors, and other places for entertainment
or amusement as found in the first clause of Section 458 (a)
4 (vii). Its powers to regulate, suppress and suspend „such
other events or activities for amusement or entertainment,
particularly those which tend to disturb the community or
annoy the inhabitants‰ and to „prohibit certain forms of
amusement or entertainment in order to protect the social
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only one of the two can remain in force and those which
occur when an act covers the whole subject of an earlier act
and is intended to be a substitute therefor. The validity of
such a repeal is sustained on the ground that 117
the latest
expression of the legislative will should prevail.
In addition, Section 534(f) of the Code states that „All
general and special laws, acts, city charters, decrees,
executive orders, proclamations and administrative
regulations, or part or parts thereof which are inconsistent
with any of the provisions of this Code are hereby repealed
or modified accordingly.‰ Thus, submitting to petitionersÊ
interpretation that the Revised Charter of Manila
empowers the City Council to prohibit motels, that portion
of the Charter stating such must be considered repealed by
the Code as it is at variance with the latterÊs provisions
granting the City Council mere regulatory powers.
It is well to point out that petitioners also cannot seek
cover under the general welfare clause authorizing the
abatement of nuisances without judicial proceedings. That
tenet applies to a nuisance per se, or one which affects the
immediate safety of persons and property and may be
summarily abated under the undefined law of necessity. It
can not
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...
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119 FRANCISCO, supra note 113 at pp. 178-179; See King, et al. v.
Hernaez, etc., et al., 114 Phil. 730, 739; 4 SCRA 792, 801 (1962).
358
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SUPREME COURT REPORTS ANNOTATED VOLUME 455 11/13/23, 2:15 AM
The requirement that the enactment must not violate existing law
explains itself. Local political subdivisions are able to legislate only
by virtue of a valid delegation of legislative power from the national
legislature (except only that the power to create their own sources
of revenue and to levy taxes is conferred by the Constitution itself).
They are mere agents vested with what is called the power of
subordinate legislation. As delegates of the Congress, the local
government units cannot contravene but must obey at all times the
will of their principal. In the case before us, the enactment in
question, which are merely local in origin cannot prevail against the
122
decree, which has the force and effect of a statute.
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SUPREME COURT REPORTS ANNOTATED VOLUME 455 11/13/23, 2:15 AM
120 Chua Lao, etc., et al. v. Raymundo, etc., et al., 104 Phil. 302, 307
(1958).
121 G.R. No. 102782, 11 December 1991, 204 SCRA 837.
122 Id., at p. 847.
359
Conclusion
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SUPREME COURT REPORTS ANNOTATED VOLUME 455 11/13/23, 2:15 AM
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123 Balacuit v. Court of First Instance of Agusan del Norte, supra note
61 at pp. 198-199.
360
SO ORDERED.
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