Villegas v.

Hiu Chong Tsai Pao Ho 86 SCRA 270 (employment permit)

DOCTRINE: Once an alien is admitted within the PH territory, he cannot be deprived of life without due
process of law and this guarantee includes the means of livelihood. The protection under the due process
and equal protection clause is given to ALL persons, both aliens and citizens.

FACTS:

• Ordinance No. 6537 was passed by the Municipal Board of Manila and signed by Mayor Villegas.
 o The
ordinance prohibits an alien from being employed or to engage or participate in any trade/business or
occupation

within Manila, without first securing an employment permit from the mayor.
 o Section 1 requires a permit
fee of P50.00 from aliens, except those employed in:

• The diplomatic/consular missions of foreign countries 


• The technical assistance programs of PH and foreign governments, and 


• Those working in their households and members or religious groups not paid monetarily or in kind. 

• Hiu Chiong Tsai Pao Ho, who was then employed in Manila, filed a case with the CFI of Manila praying for
a restraining order to stop the enforcement of the ordinance and to declare it null and void. He argues that:

o As a REVENUE measure – it is discriminatory and violates the rule on uniformity of taxation
 o As a

POLICE POWER measure – it makes no distinction between useful and non-useful occupations and that it
imposes

the fee without providing for a standard to guide or limit the action of the mayor, and
 o That since it is
applied only to aliens, they are deprived of their rights to life, liberty and property and therefore, it violates

the due process and equal protection clause of the Constitution for being arbitrary, oppressive and
unreasonable. • Mayor Villegas argues that:

o The ordinance is not a tax or revenue measure but is in the exercise of the police power of the state, it
being principally a regulatory measure in nature.

ISSUES/HELD:

Is the ordinance valid? – NO

• REVENUE:
 o While the first part of the ordinance, requiring an employment permit is regulatory in
character, the second part, which

requires the payment of P50.00 as employee’s fee is not regulatory but is a revenue measure.
 o There is
no more reason for exacting the amount from aliens when they have already been cleared for employment.
o Such is clearly for the purpose of raising money under the guise of regulation.

• EQUAL PROTECTION:
 o VALID CLASSIFICATION:

•   §Aside from being unreasonable and excessive, the imposition of the fee also fails to
consider the substantial differences in situation of the aliens required to pay it. 


•   §The same amount is being collected from an alien, whether he is causal or

permanent, part time or full time or lowly or highly paid. 

• Although the equal protection clause does not forbid classifications, such classification must be based on
real and substantial differences having a reasonable relation to the subject of the particular
legislation. 


o STANDARD:

• The ordinance also does not lay down any criterion or standard to guide the Mayor in the exercise of his

discretion. 


• This gives the mayor arbitrary and unrestricted powers to grant or deny the employment permit and such
is 
an undefined and unlimited delegation of power. 


• DUE PROCESS:
 o Requiring an alien to get a permit from the mayor who may withhold or refuse it at will
is tantamount to denying him the

basic right to engage in a means of livelihood.
 o Once an alien is admitted within the PH territory, he
cannot be deprived of life without due process of law and this

guarantee includes the means of livelihood.
 o The protection under the due process and equal protection
clause is given to ALL persons, both aliens and citizens.