Professional Documents
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Navaro Vs Consti
Navaro Vs Consti
Navaro Vs Consti
Issue: Whether the Mayor possesses discretion to determine the public places to be used for
assembly, i.e. the Sunken Garden, instead of Plaza Miranda.
Held: the Mayor possesses reasonable discretion to determine or specify the streets or public
places to be used for the assembly in order to secure convenient use thereof by others and to
minimize the risks of disorder and maintain public safety and order. Consequently, every time
that such assemblies are announced, the community is placed in such a state of fear and tension
that offices are closed early and employees dismissed, storefronts boarded up, classes suspended,
and transportation disrupted, to the general detriment of the public. Civil rights and liberties can
exist and be preserved only in an ordered society. Navarro has failed to show a clear specific
legal duty on the part of Mayor to grant their application for permit unconditionally. Thus, the
Court denied the writ prayed for by Navarro and dismissed their petition.
NAVARRO V. VILLEGAS - Sunken Gardens as alternative to Plaza Miranda - The Mayor
cannot be compelled to issue the permit. A permit should recognize the right of the applicants to
hold their assembly at a public place of their choice, another place may be designated by the
licensing authority if it be shown that a clear and present danger of a substantive evil if no
change was made.