Tañada vs.

Tuvera
136 SCRA 27
G.R. No. L-63915; April 24, 1985

Facts:

The petitioners filed for a writ of mandamus in order to compel respondents to publish various
presidential decrees, letters of instructions, general orders, proclamations, executive orders, letters of
implementations, and administrative orders.

Summary of Arguments

Petitioners Respondent

Petitioners suggest that there should be no Issuances intended only for the internal
distinction between laws of general administration of a government agency or of
applicability and those which are not; particular persons did not have to be published;
   
that publication means complete publication; that publication, when necessary, must be in full
and and in the Official Gazette; and
   
that the publication must be made forthwith in that, however, the decision under
the Official Gazette. reconsideration was not binding because it was
not supported by eight members of the Supreme
Court.

Issue: Whether the clause "unless it is otherwise provided" in Art 2 of the NCC refers to the
effectivity of laws and not to the requirement of publication?

Summary of Principles:

1.   The clause "unless it is otherwise provided" in Art 2 of the NCC refers to the
effectivity of laws and not to the requirement of publication.
 
After a careful study of this provision and of the arguments of the parties, both on the
original petition and on the instant motion, we have come to the conclusion, and so hold,
that the clause "unless it is otherwise provided" refers to the date of effectivity and not to
the requirement of publication itself, which cannot in any event be omitted. This clause
does not mean that the legislature may make the law effective immediately upon
approval, or on any other date, without its previous publication.
 
2.   The prior publication of laws before they become effective cannot be dispensed with.
 
lt is not correct to say that under the disputed clause publication may be dispensed with
altogether. The reason is that such omission would offend due process insofar as it would
deny the public knowledge of the laws that are supposed to govern it. Surely, if the
legislature could validly provide that a law shall become effective immediately upon its
approval notwithstanding the lack of publication (or after an unreasonably short period
after publication), it is not unlikely that persons not aware of it would be prejudiced as a
result; and they would be so not because of a failure to comply with it but simply because
they did not know of its existence. Significantly, this is not true only of penal laws as is
commonly supposed. One can think of many non-penal measures, like a law on

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 prescription, which must also be communicated to the persons they may affect before
they can begin to operate.
 
3.   For purposes of the prior publication requirement for effectivity, the term "laws"
refer not only to those of general application, but also to laws of local application,
private laws; administrative rules enforcing a statute; city charters. Central Bank
circulars to "fill-in the details of the Central Bank Act; but not mere interpretative
rules regulating and providing guidelines for purposes of internal operations only.
 
The term "laws" should refer to all laws and not only to those of general application, for
strictly speaking all laws relate to the people in general albeit there are some that do not
apply to them directly. An example is a law granting citizenship to a particular individual,
like a relative of President Marcos who was decreed instant naturalization. It surely
cannot be said that such a law does not affect the public although it unquestionably does
not apply directly to all the people. The subject of such law is a matter of public interest
which any member of the body politic may question in the political forums or, if he is a
proper party, even in the courts of justice. In fact, a law without any bearing on the public
would be invalid as an intrusion of privacy or as class legislation or as an ultra vires act of
the legislature. To be valid, the law must invariably affect the public interest even if it
might be directly applicable only to one individual, or some of the people only, and not to
the public as a whole.
 
4.   All statutes, including those of local application and private laws, shall be published
as a condition for their effectivity, which shall begin fifteen days after publication
unless a different effectivity date is fixed by the legislature.
 
Covered by this rule are presidential decrees and executive orders promulgated by the
President in the exercise of legislative powers whenever the same are validly delegated by
the legislature or, at present, directly conferred by the Constitution. Administrative rules
and regulations must also be published if their purpose is to enforce or implement existing
law pursuant also to a valid delegation.
 
Interpretative regulations and those merely internal in nature, that is, regulating only the
personnel of the administrative agency and not the public, need not be published. Neither
is publication required of the so-called letters of instructions issued by administrative
superiors concerning the rules or guidelines to be followed by their subordinates in the
performance of their duties.
 
Accordingly, even the charter of a city must be published notwithstanding that it applies
to only a portion of the national territory and directy affects only the inhabitants of that
place. All presidential decrees must be published, including even, say, those naming a
public place after a favored individual or exempting him from certain prohibitions or
requirements. The circulars issued by the Monetary Board must be published if they are
meant not merely to interpret but to "fill in the details" of the Central Bank Act which that
body is supposed to enforce.
 
5.   Internal instructions issued by an administrative agency are not covered by the rule
on prior publication. Also not covered are municipal ordinances which are governed
by the Local Government Code.
 
However, no publication is required of the instructions issued by, say, the Minister of
Social Welfare on the case studies to be made in petitions for adoption or the rules laid
down by the head of a government agency on the assignments or workload of his
personnel or the wearing of office uniforms. Parenthetically, municipal ordinances are not
covered by this rule but by the Local Government Code.

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6.   Publication of statutes must be in full or it is no publication at all.
 
We agree that the publication must be in full or it is no publication at all since its purpose
is to inform the public of the contents of the laws. As correctly pointed out by the
petitioners, the mere mention of the number of the presidential decree, the title of such
decree, its whereabouts (e.g., "with Secretary Tuvera"), the supposed date of effectivity,
and in a mere supplement of the Official Gazette cannot satisfy the publication
requirement. This is not even substantial compliance. This was the manner, incidentally,
in which the General Appropriations Act for FY 1975, a presidential decree undeniably of
general applicability and interest, was "published" by the Marcos administration. The
evident purpose was to withhold rather than disclose information on this vital law.
 
7.   Prior publication of statutes for purposes of effectivity must be made in full in the
Official Gazette and not elsewhere.
 
At any rate, this Court is not called upon to rule upon the wisdom of a law or to repeal or
modify it if we find it impractical. That is not our function. That function belongs to the
legislature. Our task is merely to interpret and apply the law as conceived and approved
by the political departments of the government in accordance with the prescribed
procedure. Consequently, we have no choice but to pronounce that under Article 2 of the
Civil Code, the publication of laws must be made in the Official Gazette, and not
elsewhere, as a requirement for their effectivity after fifteen days from such publication or
after a different period provided by the legislature.
 
8.   Laws must be published as soon as possible.
 
We also hold that the publication must be made forthwith, or at least as soon as possible,
to give effect to the law pursuant to the said Article 2. There is that possibility, of course,
although not suggested by the parties that a law could be rendered unenforceable by a
mere refusal of the executive, for whatever reason, to cause its publication as required.
This is a matter, however, that we do not need to examine at this time.

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