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2
 Petitioner is Invoking the people's right to be informed on matters of public
concern, a right recognized in Section 6, Article IV of the 1973 Philippine Constitution, as
well as the principle that laws to be valid and enforceable must be published in the Official
Gazette or otherwise effectively promulgated, petitioners seek a writ of mandamus to
compel respondent public officials to publish, and/or cause the publication in the Official
Gazette of various presidential decrees, letters of instructions, general orders,
proclamations, executive orders, letter of implementation and administrative orders.

{Whether or not publication of the law is a requirement for its effectivity


 Publication is mandatory even if the law provides its own date of effectivity.

  { The clear object of the publication is to give the general public adequate
notice of the various laws which are to regulate their actions and conduct as citizens.
Without such notice and publication, there would be no basis for the application of the
maxim "ignorantia legis non excusat." It would be the height of injustice to punish or
otherwise burden a citizen for the transgression of a law of which he had no notice
whatsoever, not even a constructive one.


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