FACTS:
Invoking the right of the people to be informed on matters of public concern as well
as the principle that laws to be valid and enforceable must be published in the
Official Gazette, petitioners filed for writ of mandamus to compel respondent public
officials to publish and/or cause to publish various presidential decrees, letters of
instructions, general orders, proclamations, executive orders, letters of
implementations and administrative orders.
The Solicitor General, representing the respondents, moved for the dismissal of
the case, contending that petitioners have no legal personality to bring the instant
petition.
ISSUE:
Whether or not publication in the Official Gazette is required before any law or
statute becomes valid and enforceable.
HELD:
Art. 2 of the Civil Code does not preclude the requirement of publication in the
Official Gazette, even if the law itself provides for the date of its effectivity. The
clear object of this provision is to give the general public adequate notice of the
various laws which are to regulate their actions and conduct as citizens. Without
such notice and publication, there would be no basis for the application of the
maxim ignoratia legis nominem excusat. It would be the height of injustive to
punish or otherwise burden a citizen for the transgression of a law which he had no
notice whatsoever, not even a constructive one.
The very first clause of Section 1 of CA 638 reads: there shall be published in the
Official Gazette…. The word “shall” therein imposes upon respondent officials an
imperative duty. That duty must be enforced if the constitutional right of the people
to be informed on matter of public concern is to be given substance and validity.
HELD:
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 in any other date, without its previous publication.
“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. 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 eve if it
might be directly applicable only to one individual, or some of the people only, and
not to the public as a whole.
All statutes, including those of local application and private laws, shall be published
as a condition for their effectivity, which shall begin 15 days after publication
unless a different effectivity date is fixed by the legislature.
Article 2 of the Civil Code provides that publication of laws must be made in the
Official Gazette, and not elsewhere, as a requirement for their effectivity. The