Arenas v City of San Carlos OPINION(S) OF THE COURT and RULING

(G.R. No. L-34024, 5 April 1978)

Petitioner(s): Isidro Arenas
Respondent(s): City of San Carlos, et al.
ANTECEDENT FACTS
Petitioner Arenas is the incumbent city judge of San Carlos.
Respondent City of San Carlos has been classified as a third-class city
from the time of its creation in 1966 up to the present.
The reason for the city judge’s monthly salary being P100.00 less than
that of a city mayor is because, as stated during the deliberations, “it
would be unfair for the purposes of public administration that a city
department head should receive a salary higher than that of the chief
executive of the city.”
Similarly, during the deliberations, Sen. Laurel also noted that “this will not
require the council to pay at P100.00 exactly less than the salary of the
mayor. It is just a limit—the maximum—but they may fix it at much less
than that.”

R.A. No. 5967, which became effective on June 21, 1969, provides that Inasmuch as the city mayor of San Carlos was receiving an annual salary
the basic salary of city judges of second-class and third-class cities shall of P13,200.00, the Respondents cannot be compelled to provide for an
be P18,000.00 per annum annual salary of P18,000.00 for Arenas, because it does not follow what
the framers of the law intended.
o Arenas was then actually receiving P12,000.00 annually
o Arenas asserts that under the said Act, the difference between
the salary actually being received by a city judge and the basic
salary established in the said Act shall be paid by the city
government

Respondent, however, alleged the following:

o R.A. No. 5967 also provides that the salary of the city judge shall
at least be P100 per month less than that of a city mayor
o Assuming the existence of a salary difference, the payment of
such is discretionary on the part of the city government as to
whether or not it would implement the payment

The CFI of San Carlos dismissed the petition.

ISSUE(S)

Whether or not it is mandatory to follow the prescribed basic salaries

provided in R.A. No. 5967

Reviewer by Alecs Laohoo