16magtajas Vs Pryce Corp. Inc
16magtajas Vs Pryce Corp. Inc
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G.R. No. 111097. July 20, 1994.
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* EN BANC.
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legislature and the local government units has not been enfeebled
by the new provisions in the Constitution strengthening the policy
of local autonomy. Without meaning to detract from that policy,
we here confirm that Congress retains control of the local
government units although in significantly reduced degree now
than under our previous Constitutions. The power to create still
includes the power to destroy. The power to grant still includes
the power to withhold or recall. True, there are certain notable
innovations in the Constitution, like the direct conferment on the
local government units of the power to tax, which cannot now be
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CRUZ, J.:
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NOW THEREFORE,
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xxx
(v) Enact ordinances intended to prevent, suppress and impose appropriate
penalties for habitual drunkenness in public places, vagrancy, mendicancy,
prostitution, establishment and maintenance of houses of ill repute, gambling
and other prohibited games of chance, fraudulent devices and ways to obtain
money or property, drug addiction, maintenance of drug dens, drug pushing,
juvenile delinquency, the printing, distribution or exhibition of obscene or
pornographic materials or publications, and such other activities inimical to the
welfare and morals of the inhabitants of the city;
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(f) 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provisions of this Code are hereby repealed or modified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.
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7 39 Phil. 102.
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only by the criteria laid down by law and not by our own
convictions on the propriety of gambling.
The tests of a valid9 ordinance are well established. A
long line of decisions has held that to be valid, an
ordinance must conform to the following substantive
requirements:
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unmistakable
10
showing of such intention. In Lichauco & Co.
v. Apostol, this Court explained:
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10 44 Phil. 138.
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government.
It is a canon of legal hermeneutics that instead of pitting
one statute against another in an inevitably destructive
confrontation, courts must exert every effort to reconcile
them, remembering that both laws deserve a becoming
respect as the handiwork of a coordinate branch of the
government. On the assumption of a conflict between P.D.
1869 and the Code, the proper action is not to uphold one
and annul the other but to give effect to both by
harmonizing them if possible. This is possible in the case
before us. The proper resolution of the problem at hand is
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13
turns the head of the workman” and that 14
“habitual
gambling 15is a cause of laziness and ruin.” In People v.
Gorostiza, we declared: “The social scourge of gambling
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SEPARATE OPINION
PADILLA, J.:
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SEPARATE OPINION
I.
It must at once be noted that private respondent Pryce
Properties Corporation (PRYCE) directly filed with the
Court of Appeals its socalled petition for prohibition,
thereby invoking the said court’s original jurisdiction to
issue writs of prohibition under Section 9(1) of B.P. Blg.
129. As I see it, however, the principal cause of action
therein is one for declaratory relief: to declare null and
unconstitutional—for inter alia, having been enacted
without or in excess of jurisdiction, for impairing the
obligation of contracts, and for being inconsistent with
public policy—the challenged ordinances enacted by the
Sangguniang Panglungsod of the City of Cagayan de Oro.
The intervention therein of public respondent Philippine
Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) further
underscores the “declaratory relief” nature of the action.
PAGCOR assails the ordinances for being contrary to the
nonimpairment and equal protection clauses of the
Constitution, violative of the Local Government Code, and
against the State’s national policy declared in P.D. No.
1869. Accordingly, the Court of Appeals does not have
jurisdiction over the nature of the action. Even assuming
arguendo that the case is one for prohibition, then, under
this Court’s established policy relative to the hierarchy of
courts, the petition should have been filed with the
Regional Trial Court of Cagayan de Oro City. I find no
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II.
The challenged ordinances are (a) Ordinance No. 3353
entitled, “An ordinance Prohibiting the Issuance of
Business Permit and Canceling Existing Business Permit
To Any Establishment for the Using and Allowing to be
Used Its Premises or Portion Thereof for the Operation of
Casino.” and (b) Ordinance No. 337593 entitled, “An
Ordinance Prohibiting the Operation of Casino and
Providing Penalty for Violation Therefor.” They were
enacted to implement Resolution No. 2295 entitled,
“Resolution Declaring As a Matter of Policy to Prohibit
and/or Not to Allow the Establishment of the Gambling
Casino in the City of Cagayan de Oro,” which was
promulgated on 19 November 1990—nearly two years
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III.
The nullification by the Court of Appeals of the challenged
ordinances as unconstitutional primarily because it is in
contravention to P.D. No. 1869 is unwarranted. A
contravention of a law is not necessarily a contravention of
the constitution. In any case, the ordinances can still stand
even if they be conceded as offending P.D. No. 1869. They
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IV.
From the pleadings, it is obvious that the government and
the people of Cagayan de Oro City are, for obvious reasons,
strongly against the opening of the gambling casino in their
city. Gambling, even if legalized, would be inimical to the
general welfare of the inhabitants of the city, or of any
place for that matter. The
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