CHAPTER 5

FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES AND STATE POLICIES

Introduction:
Article II of the constitution is entited “Declaration of Principles and State Policies.”
This article is intended to lay down the rules underlying our system of government
and must therefore be adhered to in the conduct of public affairs and the resolution
of public issues.  

SOCIAL JUSTICE:

 One of the most serious problem of the nation is the acute imbalance
between the rich and the poor and the resultant divisiveness and hostility
between them.
 This polarization has created an explosive situation that, unless corrected in
time, may lead to a violent social upheaval.

Calalang vs. Williams G.R. No. 47800 December 2, 1940

Social Justice
FACTS:

 July 1940 - Chairman of NTC (National Transport Comm) recommended to

Director of Public Works adoption of the measure proposed in the resolution
in pursuance of CA 548 which authorizes said Director to promulgate rules
and regulations for the use of and traffic on national roads.
 Maximo Calalang brought a petition for a writ of prohibition against the
following respondents: Chairman of the National Traffic Commission (A.D.
Williams), Director of Public Works (Vicente Fragante), Acting Secretary of
Public Works and Communications (Sergio Bayan), Mayor of the City of
Manila (Eulogio Rodriguez), and the Acting Chief of Police of Manila (Juan
Dominguez).
 It is alleged in the petition that the respondents have caused and enforced
the prohibition of animal-drawn vehicles from passing along Rosario St.
extending from Plaza Calderon de la Barca to Dasmarinas Street (from
7:30am-12:30pm and from 1:30-5:30p.m.); and Rizal Avenue extending
from the railroad crossing at Antipolo Street to Echague Street (from 7-
11a.m.) for a period of one year from the date of the opening of the
Colgante Bridge, to the detriment not only of their owners but of the riding
public as well.
 The petitioner avers that the rules and regulations to regulate and control
the use of and traffic on national roads, pursuant to Commonwealth Act No.
 548, infringe upon the constitutional precept regarding the promotion of
social justice to insure the well-being and economic security of all the people

ISSUE:

 WON rules and regulations promulgated by Director of Public Works, upon

the recommendation of the NTC Chairman, pursuant to provisions of CA No.
548, violate the constitutional provisions on social welfare and social justice
to insure the well-being and economic security of all the people?

HELD:

 NO! Social justice means the promotion of the welfare of all the people, the
adoption by Government of measures calculated to insure economic stability
of all the competent elements of society, through the maintenance of a
proper economic and social equilibrium in the interrelations of the members
of the community, constitutionally, through the adoption of measures legally
justifiable, or extra-constitutionally, through the exercise of powers
underlying the existence of all governments on the time-honored principles of
salus populi est suprema lex.
 "The health, welfare, good, salvation, felicity of the people should be the
supreme law. = "Let the good or safety of the people be the supreme or
highest law."
 Social justice is not achieved through mistaken sympathy towards any given
group. It is “neither communism, nor despotism, nor atomism, nor anarchy,”
but the humanization of laws and the equalization of social and economic
forces by the State so that justice may at least be approximated. Social
justice must be founded on the recognition of the necessity of
interdependence among diverse units of a society and of the protection that
should be equally evenly extended to all groups as a combined force in our
social and economic life, consistent with the fundamental and paramount
objective of the state of promoting health, comfort, and peace of all persons,
and of bringing about “the greatest good to the greatest number.”