United States v.

Luis Toribio

G.R. No. L-5060, January 26, 1910

Facts:

Toribio was found by the trial court of Bohol violating Sections 30 and 33 of Act No.
1147, an Act regulating the registration, branding, and slaughter of Large Cattle. The act
prohibits the slaughter of large cattle fit for agricultural work or other draft purposes for human
consumption. Appellant Toribio slaughtered or caused to be slaughtered his carabao without a
permit from the municipal treasurer of the municipality. It appears that in the town of Carmen,
in the Province of Bohol, wherein the animal was slaughtered there is no municipal
slaughterhouse, and counsel for appellant contends that under such circumstances the
provisions of Act No. 1147 do not prohibit nor penalize the slaughter of large cattle without a
permit of the municipal treasure. Appellant contends that he applied for a permit to slaughter
the animal but was not given one because the carabao was not found to be “unfit for
agricultural work” which resulted to appellant to slaughter said carabao in a place other than
the municipal slaughterhouse. Appellant then assails the validity of a provision under Act No.
1147 which states that only carabaos unfit for agricultural work can be slaughtered. Appellant
also contended that the act constitutes a taking of property for public use in the exercise of the
right of eminent domain without providing for the compensation of owners, and it is an undue
and unauthorized exercise of police power of the state for it deprives them of the enjoyment of
their private property.

Issue:

WON the prohibition and the penalty imposed in Act No. 1147 is limited only to the
slaughter of large cattle at the municipal slaughterhouse.

Rulings:

NO. The prohibition and penalty imposed in Act No. 1147 applies generally to the
slaughter of large cattle for human consumption, anywhere, without a permit duly secured from
the municipal treasurer, and specifically to the killing for food of large cattle at a municipal
slaughterhouse without such permit. Where the language of a statute is fairly susceptible of two
or more constructions, that construction should be adopted which will most tend to give effect
to the manifest intent of the lawmaker and promote the object for which the statute was
enacted, and a construction should be rejected which would tend to render abortive other
provisions of the statute and to defeat the object which the legislator sought to attain by its
enactment. Therefore, sections 30 and 33 of the Act prohibit and penalize the slaughtering or
causing to be slaughtered for human consumption of large cattle at any place without the
permit provided for in section 30.