FACTS
This is a joint appeal from the decision of
the Court of First Instance in Manila declaring section 13 of RA No. 590 unconstitutional
and ordering the appellant Saturnino David as Collector of Internal Revenue to
refund to Justice Pastor Endencia and to Justice Fernando Jugo the income tax
collected on their salary. When the SC held in the Perfecto case that judicial
officers exempt from salary tax because the collection thereof was a decrease
or diminution of their salaries which is prohibited by the Constitution, the
Congress thereafter promulgated RA No. 590, authorizing and legalizing the
collection of income tax on the salaries of judicial officers.
ISSUE
Whether or not Section 13 of RA 590 is
constitutional
HELD
When it is clear
that a statute transgresses the authority vested in the legislature by the
Constitution, it is the duly of the courts to declare the act unconstitutional.
Section 13, RA No. 590 is a clear example of interpretation or ascertainment of
the meaning of the phrase found in section 9, Art. VIII of the Constitution
which refers to the salaries of judicial officers. This act interpreting the Constitution
or any part thereof by the Legislature is an invasion of the well-defined and
established province and jurisdiction of the Judiciary. The Legislature may not
legally provide therein that a statue be interpreted in such a way that it may
not violate a Constitutional prohibition, thus the unconstitutionality of
Section 13 of RA No. 590.
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