G.R. No. L-29646
November 10, 1978
FACTS
The city council of Manila enacted Ordinance No. 6537. The ordinance prohibits aliens to be employed or to engage or participate in any position or occupation or business , whether permanent, temporary or casual, without first securing an employment permit from the Mayor of Manila and paying the permit fee of P50.00. Moreover, the ordinance does not lay down guidelines or criterion for the mayor to exercise its discretion in issuing the said employment permit. Hence, the ordinance was being challenged to be unconstitutional for violating the equal protection of laws.
ISSUE
Whether or not the ordinance is unconstitutional?
HELD
Yes. Any ordinance or law is violative of the equal protection if it gives a government official an arbitrary and restrictive power which is an unlimited and undefined delegation of power to allow or permit an activity (People v Fajardo). For example, an ordinance or law which allows the discretion of a public officer to be exercised without a policy, rule, or standard from which it can be measured or controlled is unconstitutional for permitting the exercise of arbitrary discretion (Chinese Flour Importers Association v Price Stabilization Board).
In this case, Ordinance No. 6537 is void because it does not contain or suggest any standard or criterion to guide the mayor in the exercise of the power which has been granted to him by the ordinance. Requiring a person, before he can be employed, to get a permit from the City Mayor of Manila who may withhold or refuse it at the latter’s will is tantamount to denying him the basic right of the people in the Philippines to engage in a means of livelihood
Hence, it violates the due process of law and equal protection rule of the Constitution.
Aside, classification if reasonable does not violate the equal protection clause. The classification, should be based on real and substantial differences having a reasonable relation to the subject of the particular legislation.
In this case, the P50.00 fee is unreasonable not only because it is excessive but because it fails to consider valid substantial differences in situation among individual aliens who are required to pay it. The same amount of P50.00 is being collected from every employed alien, whether he is casual or permanent, part time or full time or whether he is a lowly employee or a highly paid executive.