Case Digest /Marie Beth Revilla /for MARC DONNELLY AND ASSOCIATES VS. MANUEL AGREGADO G.R. No. L-4510 May 31, 1954 (2nd Digest)

 

MARC DONNELLY AND ASSOCIATES VS. MANUEL AGREGADO

G.R. No. L-4510 May 31, 1954

 

FACTS:  Petition for review of the decision of the Auditor General to reject the petition of the applicant to the Sugar Quota Office in respect of the export fees charged by the applicant to the Sugar Quota Office in the amount of P54,862.84.

July 2, 1946 – enacted Commonwealth Act No. 728: 'unlawful for any individual, company or organization to export agricultural or industrial products, commodities, articles, materials and supplies without authorisation from the President of the Philippines. Appoints the President with the power to oversee, monitor and ban the sale of products abroad.

July 10, 1946 – President, promulgated Executive Order No. 3 banning the exportation of such products mentioned therein, and permits the exportation of other items.

April 24, 1947 – The Chief Executive Officer sent a communication to the Philippine Sugar Administration approving the sale of scrap metals on payment by the applicants of a charge of P10 per ton of the metals to be shipped.

Over the time from December 1947 to September 1948, the petitioner exported substantial quantities of scrap iron, brass, copper and aluminum, for which the total amount of P54,862,84 was compensated by way of royalties. Amount was obtained by the Sugar Quota Office under the authority provided by the Chief Executive Officer and the above-mentioned Cabinet resolution. The matter is currently before us by way of appeal from the decision of the Auditor General, who rejected the offer for repayment of those royalties.

 

ISSUE: Whether or not EO is valid?

 

HELD: Yeah, according to Art. 6 sec. 22(2) of the Constitution, the Congress may, by statute, permit the President, subject to certain restrictions, to set, under the limits laid down, tariffs, import or export quotas and tonnage. The Congress enacted the Commonwealth Act No. 728, which confers on the President the power to govern, ban, monitor and prevent the sale of scrap metals and to set down such rules and regulations as may be appropriate for the enforcement of its provisions. The resolution is perfectly legal because it was done by authority of Commonwealth Act No. 728 and in pursuance of an express provision of our Constitution. The fact that the resolution was enacted by the Cabinet and the recovery of revenues was not decreed on the grounds of an order given by the President himself does not, in our view, invalidate the resolution because it cannot be denied that the act of the Cabinet is, and is ultimately, the act of the President.

And this is so because, as this Court aptly said, the secretaries of departments are mere assistants of the Chief Executive and “the multifarious executive and administrative functions of the Chief Executive are performed by and through the executive departments and the acts of the secretaries of such departments, performed and promulgated in the regular course of business, are, unless disapproved or reprobated by the Chief Executive, presumptively the acts of the Chief Executive.