Villavicencio vs Lukban, GR No.

14639
DOCTRINE OF THE CASE:

The Government of the Philippine Islands is a. government of laws. The court will assist
in retaining it as a government of laws and not of men. No official, however high, is
above the law. The courts are the forum which functionate to safeguard individual liberty
and to punish official transgressors.

FACTS:

Justo Lukban, who was then the Mayor of the City of Manila, ordered the deportation of
170 prostitutes to Davao. His reason for doing so was to preserve the morals of the
people of Manila. He claimed that the prostitutes were sent to Davao, purportedly, to
work for an haciendero Feliciano Ynigo. The prostitutes were confined in houses from
October 16 to 18 of that year before being boarded, at the dead of night, in two boats
bound for Davao. The women were under the assumption that they were being
transported to another police station while Ynigo, the haciendero from Davao, had no
idea that the women being sent to work for him were actually prostitutes.

The families of the prostitutes came forward to file charges against Lukban, Anton
Hohmann, the Chief of Police, and Francisco Sales, the Governor of Davao. They
prayed for a writ of habeas corpus to be issued against the respondents to compel them
to bring back the 170 women who were deported to Mindanao against their will.

During the trial, it came out that, indeed, the women were deported without their consent.
In effect, Lukban forcibly assigned them a new domicile. Most of all, there was no law or
order authorizing Lukban’s deportation of the 170 prostitutes.

ISSUE:

Whether we are a government of laws or a government of men.

HELD:

We are clearly a government of laws. Lukban committed a grave abuse of discretion by

deporting the prostitutes to a new domicile against their will. There is no law expressly
authorizing his action. On the contrary, there is a law punishing public officials, not
expressly authorized by law or regulation, who compels any person to change his
residence.

Furthermore, the prostitutes are still, as citizens of the Philippines, entitled to the same
rights, as stipulated in the Bill of Rights, as every other citizen. Their choice of profession
should not be a cause for discrimination. It may make some, like Lukban, quite
uncomfortable but it does not authorize anyone to compel said prostitutes to isolate
themselves from the rest of the human race. These women have been deprived of their
liberty by being exiled to Davao without even being given the opportunity to collect their
belongings or, worse, without even consenting to being transported to Mindanao. For
this, Lukban et al must be severely punished.