Velasco vs.

Villegas
G.R. No. 24153 Feb. 14, 1983
FACTS:
Respondents-appellants Villegas et al, through the City of Manila, promulgated Ordinance No.
4964 prohibiting any operator of any barber shop to conduct the business of massaging
customers or any persons in any adjacent room or rooms of said barber shop, or in any room or
rooms within the building where the barber shop is located as long as the operator of the barber
shop and the room where the massaging is conducted is the same person. Petitioners Velasco et
al, a member of the Sta. Cruz Barber Shop Association, in own behalf and representing the other
owners of barber shop in the City of Manila filed in the lower court a suit for declaratory relief
challenging the constitutionality of the ordinance which they contended that it deprives the
property of the petitioners of their means of livelihood without due process. The lower court
dismissed the petition thus prompted the petitioners to file an instant petition before the Supreme
Court.
ISSUE:
Whether or not City of Manila Ordinance No. 4964 is unconstitutional.
Held:
The Supreme Court declared that the ordinance is not unconstitutional. The Supreme Court held
that the power vested in the City of Manila is an exercise of police power as embodied on
Sec. 16 of R.A. 7160 or the Local Government Code of 1991 wherein the general welfare
clause assails the statutory grant of police power to local government units and thus the City of
Manila passed a such ordinance for the protection of public morals. The respondents-
appellants are correct in their argument that the objective of the ordinance is to impose the
payment of the license fee for engaging in the business of massage clinics and not to regulate
the business of barber shops or to forestall the possible immorality as a consequence in the
construction of separate rooms the massage of customers. The Supreme Court affirmed the
decision of the lower court.