BULACAN v.

CA (299 SCRA 442)

Facts:

The then governor, Obet Pagdanganan together with his provincial council passed an ordinance imposing
tax on quarrying under the provision of Sect. 138 of the LGC. The problem is that the ordinance applies
to all entities quarrying in the province. One of the taxpayers, Republic Cement obliged to pay the tax,
argued that under Sect. 138 of the LGC, the tax on quarrying on which the province may be allowed shall
only be with regard to quarrying private land, and not only that but under Sect. 133(H), there is a
prohibition to impose excise tax and tax on quarrying under the IRC is an excise tax.

Held: Whether or not the contention is meritorious.

The tax on quarrying allowed to provincial governments shall only be with regard to lands which are
public lands, and since this is a private tax on quarrying refers to a lot without any distinction. Hence, if
the LGC made a qualification as to the kind of land (where it says it should be public land), by
implication, it should refer to private land under §151 (although the law did not distinguish); and since it
is a tax by the national government, it should be collected by the BIR (not the LGU), and also the SC
agreed that it is an excise tax where LGU’s are prohibited from collecting; thus, the SC declared the tax
ordinance null and void for being contrary to law.