EFFECTIVITY OF LAWS (ART.

2)

Tañada v. Tuvera G.R. No. L-63915; December 29, 1986

CRUZ, J.:

ALL STATUTES OF LOCAL APPLICATION AND PRIVATE LAWS SHALL BE PUBLISHED

FOR THEIR EFFECTIVITY

FACTS: Petitioners seek a writ of mandamus to compel respondent public officials to publish
and/or cause the publication of various Presidential Decrees (PDs), letters of instructions,
general orders, proclamations, executive orders, letters of implementation and administrative
orders, in the Official Gazette. Petitioners invoked that a law, to be valid and enforceable, must
be published in the Official Gazette or otherwise effectively promulgated. The government
argued that while publication was necessary as a rule, it was not so when it was "otherwise
provided," as when the decrees themselves declared that they were to become effective
immediately upon their approval. The SC, in its decision in 1985, affirmed the necessity of the
publication of the presidential issuances which are of general application. Petitioners then
moved for reconsideration/clarification asserting that the clause “unless it is otherwise provided”
meant that the publication required therein was not always imperative.

ISSUE: Whether publication is an indispensable requirement for the effectivity of the presidential
issuances in question

HELD: YES. Publication of presidential issuances at bar is an indispensable requirement for

their effectivity despite the special provisions as to the date they are to take effect. Art. 2 of the
Civil Code provides that “laws shall take effect after fifteen days following the completion of their
publication in the Official Gazette, unless it is otherwise provided. This Code shall take effect
one year after such publication.” The phrase "unless it is otherwise provided" refers to the date
of effectivity and not to the requirement of publication itself, which cannot in any event be
omitted. All statutes, including those of local application and private laws, shall be published as
a condition for their effectivity, which shall begin fifteen days after publication unless a different
effectivity date is fixed by the legislature. In the case at bar, the SC held that all presidential
decrees and executive orders promulgated by the President in the exercise of legislative powers
whenever the same are validly delegated by the legislature or, at present, directly conferred by
the Constitution, shall be published as a condition for their effectivity. On the other hand,
interpretative regulations and those merely internal in nature, that is, regulating only the
personnel of the administrative agency and not the public, need not be published. Therefore, the
Court declared that all laws aforementioned shall be published in full in the Official Gazette to
become effective in accordance with Article 2 of the Civil Code.