Case Digest: Tañada vs. Tuvera; 146 SCRA 466 (1985)

              Due Process | Constitutional Law


Facts:
Invoking the people's right to be informed on matters of public concern, a right recognized in Section 6, Article IV of the 1973 Philippine Constitution, as well as the principle that laws to be valid and enforceable must be published in the Official Gazette or otherwise effectively promulgated, petitioners seek a writ of mandamus to compel respondent public officials to publish, and/or cause the publication in the Official Gazette of various presidential decrees, letters of instructions, general orders, proclamations, executive orders, letter of implementation and administrative orders.


Issue:
WoN the publication of presidential issuances "of a public nature" or "of general applicability" is a requirement of due process.
 

Held: 
It is a rule of law that before a person may be bound by law, he must first be officially and specifically informed of its contents. 

In a time of proliferating decrees, orders and letters of instructions which all form part of the law of the land, the requirement of due process and the Rule of Law demand that the Official Gazette as the official government repository promulgate and publish the texts of all such decrees, orders and instructions so that the people may know where to obtain their official and specific contents.

Principle:
Publication is necessary to apprise the public of the contents of [penal] regulations and make the said penalties binding on the persons affected thereby. The cogency of this holding is apparently recognized by respondent officials considering the manifestation in their comment that the government, as a matter of policy, refrains from prosecuting violations of criminal laws until the same shall have been published in the Official Gazette or in some other publication, even though some criminal laws provide that they shall take effect immediately.

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