i.

Student Name:
Michelle C. Llaneta-Villamora

ii. Complete Case Title Citation:

Maximo Calalang v. A.D. Williams (G.R. No. 47800, December 2, 1940

iii. Statement of the Issue:

Whether or not the Commonwealth Act No. 548 infringes the statutory precept of
promoting social justice.

iv. Complainant’s Arguments:

The petitioner argues that, because of the compliance of the rules and regulations,
it is not permitted to pass and pick up passengers at the above-described locations to
the detriment not only of their owners, but also of the riding public. It therefore
infringes the constitutional principle of fostering social justice in order to ensure the
well-being and economic stability of all citizens.

v. Respondent’s Argument:
The pursuit of social justice must not be done by violence, to any given category.
Social justice is' neither dictatorship, nor despotism, nor atomism, nor anarchy, but
the humanization of laws and the equalization of social and economic powers by the
state in such a way that justice can at least be approximated in its logical and
objectively secular form. Social justice means the promotion of the welfare of all
people, the adoption by the government of measures designed to ensure the economic
equality of all the relevant elements of society, through the preservation of a proper
economic and social balance between the members of the group, constitutionally by
the adoption of legally justifiable measures; Or extra-constitutionally, by exercising
the powers underpinning the life of all governments on the time-honored concept of
salus populi est suprema lex.

vi. Instruction Learned:

Police power being one of the inherent powers of the State, the exercise thereof
must be respected by its citizens. It is founded upon the aim of promoting public
health, public safety, public moral and general safety of the people. Social Justice is
the promotion of equality of every individual to economic, social and political rights
and opportunities. The State with respect to police power and social justice gives
primary and utmost consideration to the welfare and well-being of the greater
number.

Decision of the Court:

The writ of prohibition was denied.

vii. Ratio:
Social justice must be focused on the awareness of the need to do so.
Interdependence between separate and different units of society and security that
should be equally and fairly extended to all groups as a combined force in our social
and economic life, consistent with the fundamental and paramount objective of
promoting the wellbeing, comfort and quiet of all persons, And to offer "the greatest
good to the greatest number."