Fundamental Powers

Local Government Units merely exercise delegated police power as agents of the State. True or False?

• False. Police Power is an inherent power of the State, which includes the LGUs.

• True. LGUs exercise delegated police power as agents of the State. It acts in conformity to the will of the principal, the State.

• False. As an inherent attribute of sovereignty, police power primarily rests with the government.

• True. But ordinances enacted pursuant to the general welfare clause is an exercise of police power and can subvert or supplant the general laws.

Police Power is the power vested in the legislature by the constitution to make, ordain, and establish all manner of wholesome and reasonable laws, statutes, and ordinances, either with penalties or without, not repugnant to the constitution, as they shall judge to be for the good and __ of the commonwealth, and of the subjects of the same.

Is the imposition of senior citizen discount a valid exercise of police power?

• Yes. The State, in promoting the health and welfare of a special group of citizens, could validly impose upon private establishments to partly subsidize a government program.

• No. The imposition of a senior citizen discount is not an exercise of police power but of eminent domain to address social justice, human right, and public use.

• Yes. But there must be just compensation in the form of tax deductions and benefits for those establishments that gave discounts.

• No. This is not just a duty of the State, but also a shared duty among the community to take care of senior citizens, so it must be made through a statute.

Police Power has been described as the most essential, insistent and the ___ of powers, extending as it does to all the great public needs.

Is the grant of senior citizen discount unduly oppressive and confiscatory to the pharmaceutical business?

• Yes. Property rights cannot all the time bow to the primacy of police power because property rights are sheltered by due process.

• No. While the Constitution protects property rights, the State, in the exercise of police power, can intervene in the operations of a business which may result in an impairment of property rights.

• It depends. The right to property has a social dimension. It must be in line with jurisprudence, akin to agrarian reform and the regulation of contracts and public utilities, so that the right to property can be relinquished upon the command of the State for the promotion of public good.

To successfully invoke the exercise of police power, and to free it from the imputation of constitutional infirmity, not only must it appear that the interests of the public generally, as distinguished from those of a particular class, require an interference with private rights, but the means adopted must be reasonably necessary for the accomplishment of the purpose and not unduly __ upon individuals.

A reasonable relation must exist between the purposes of the police measure and the __ for its accomplishment, for even under the guise of protecting the public interest, personal rights and those pertaining to private property will not be permitted to be arbitrarily invaded.

Can a City enact and implement an ordinance to promote and protect the social and moral values of the community?

• Yes. It is undoubtedly one of the fundamental duties of a City government to make all reasonable regulations looking to the promotion of the moral and social values of the community.

• Yes, but the worthy aim of fostering public morals and the eradication of the community's social ills can be achieved through means less restrictive of private rights.

• No. The local government cannot legislate morality. Immorality is not a thing, a building, or an establishment; it is in the hearts of men.

• No. The City has no power to regulate human conduct that occurs inside the establishments, especially to the detriment of liberty and privacy which are covenants, premiums and blessings of democracy.

Local ordinances, however laudable their objectives might be, are not to contravene State-enacted legislation. Local government units merely derive their power from the State __; as such, they cannot regulate activities already allowed by statute.

The burden of proving unconstitutionality rests on such party. The burden becomes heavier when the police power is at issue.

• True

• False

• It depends