BOOK VII

Administrative Procedure

CHAPTER 1
General Provisions

SECTION 1. Scope.—This Book shall be applicable to all agencies as defined in the next
succeeding section, except the Congress, the Judiciary, the Constitutional Commissions,
military establishments in all matters relating exclusively to Armed Forces personnel, the
Board of Pardons and Parole, and state universities and colleges.

SECTION 2. Definitions.—As used in this Book:

(1) “Agency” includes any department, bureau, office, commission, authority or officer of the
National Government authorized by law or executive order to make rules, issue licenses,
grant rights or privileges, and adjudicate cases; research institutions with respect to
licensing functions; government corporations with respect to functions regulating private
right, privileges, occupation or business; and officials in the exercise of disciplinary power
as provided by law.

(2) “Rule” means any agency statement of general applicability that implements or interprets
a law, fixes and describes the procedures in, or practice requirements of, an agency,
including its regulations. The term includes memoranda or statements concerning the
internal administration or management of an agency not affecting the rights of, or procedure
available to, the public.

(3) “Rate” means any charge to the public for a service open to all and upon the same
terms, including individual or joint rates, tolls, classifications, or schedules thereof, as well
as commutation, mileage, kilometerage and other special rates which shall be imposed by
law or regulation to be observed and followed by any person.

(4) “Rule making” means an agency process for the formulation, amendment, or repeal of a
rule.

(5) “Contested case” means any proceeding, including licensing, in which the legal rights,
duties or privileges asserted by specific parties as required by the Constitution or by law are
to be determined after hearing.

(6) “Person” includes an individual, partnership, corporation, association, public or private

organization of any character other than an agency.

(7) “Party” includes a person or agency named or admitted as a party, or properly seeking
and entitled as of right to be admitted as a party, in any agency proceeding; but nothing
herein shall be construed to prevent an agency from admitting any person or agency as a
party for limited purposes.

(8) “Decision” means the whole or any part of the final disposition, not of an interlocutory
character, whether affirmative, negative, or injunctive in form, of an agency in any matter,
including licensing, rate fixing and granting of rights and privileges.

(9) “Adjudication” means an agency process for the formulation of a final order.

(10) “License” includes the whole or any part of any agency permit, certificate, passport,
clearance, approval, registration, charter, membership, statutory exemption or other form of
permission, or regulation of the exercise of a right or privilege.

(11) “Licensing” includes agency process involving the grant, renewal, denial, revocation,
suspension, annulment, withdrawal, limitation, amendment, modification or conditioning of a
license.

(12) “Sanction” includes the whole or part of a prohibition, limitation or other condition
affecting the liberty of any person; the withholding of relief; the imposition of penalty or fine;
the destruction, taking, seizure or withholding of property; the assessment of damages,
reimbursement, restitution, compensation, cost, charges or fees; the revocation or
suspension of license; or the taking of other compulsory or restrictive action.

(13) “Relief” includes the whole or part of any grant of money, assistance, license, authority,
privilege, exemption, exception, or remedy; recognition of any claim, right, immunity,
privilege, exemption or exception; or taking of any action upon the application or petition of
any person.

(14) “Agency proceeding” means any agency process with respect to rule-making,
adjudication and licensing.

(15) “Agency action” includes the whole or part of every agency rule, order, license,
sanction, relief or its equivalent or denial thereof.
 CHAPTER 2
Rules and Regulations

SECTION 3.  Filing.—(1) Every agency shall file with the University of the Philippines Law
Center three (3) certified copies of every rule adopted by it. Rules in force on the date of
effectivity of this Code which are not filed within three (3) months from that date shall not
thereafter be the basis of any sanction against any party or persons.

(2) The records officer of the agency, or his equivalent functionary, shall carry out the
requirements of this section under pain of disciplinary action.

(3) A permanent register of all rules shall be kept by the issuing agency and shall be open to
public inspection.

SECTION 4. Effectivity.—In addition to other rule-making requirements provided by law not

inconsistent with this Book, each rule shall become effective fifteen (15) days from the date
of filing as above provided unless a different date is fixed by law, or specified in the rule in
cases of imminent danger to public health, safety and welfare, the existence of which must
be expressed in a statement accompanying the rule. The agency shall take appropriate
measures to make emergency rules known to persons who may be affected by them.

SECTION 5.  Publication and Recording.—The University of the Philippines Law Center
shall:

(1) Publish a quarterly bulletin setting forth the text of rules filed with it during the preceding
quarter; and

(2) Keep an up-to-date codification of all rules thus published and remaining in effect,
together with a complete index and appropriate tables.

SECTION 6.  Omission of Some Rules.—(1) The University of the Philippines Law Center
may omit from the bulletin or the codification any rule if its publication would be unduly
cumbersome, expensive or otherwise inexpedient, but copies of that rule shall be made
available on application to the agency which adopted it, and the bulletin shall contain a
notice stating the general subject matter of the omitted rule and new copies thereof may be
obtained.

(2) Every rule establishing an offense or defining an act which, pursuant to law is
punishable as a crime or subject to a penalty shall in all cases be published in full text.

SECTION 7. Distribution of Bulletin and Codified Rules.—The University of the Philippines

Law Center shall furnish one (1) free copy each of every issue of the bulletin and of the
codified rules or supplements to the Office of the President, Congress, all appellate courts
and the National Library. The bulletin and the codified rules shall be made available free of
charge to such public officers or agencies as the Congress may select, and to other
persons at a price sufficient to cover publication and mailing or distribution costs.

SECTION 8.  Judicial Notice.—The court shall take judicial notice of the certified copy of
each rule duly filed or as published in the bulletin or the codified rules.

SECTION 9. Public Participation.—(1) If not otherwise required by law, an agency shall, as

far as practicable, publish or circulate notices of proposed rules and afford interested parties
the opportunity to submit their views prior to the adoption of any rule.

(2) In the fixing of rates, no rule or final order shall be valid unless the proposed rates shall
have been published in a newspaper of general circulation at least two (2) weeks before the
first hearing thereon.

(3) In case of opposition, the rules on contested cases shall be observed.

 The Civil Code of the Philippines
AN ACT TO ORDAIN AND INSTITUTE THE CIVIL CODE OF THE PHILIPPINES

PRELIMINARY TITLE

CHAPTER I

EFFECT AND APPLICATION OF LAWS

  
Article 1.  This Act shall be known as the "Civil Code of the Philippines." (n)

Art. 2.  Laws shall take effect after fifteen days following the completion of their
publication in the Official Gazette, unless it is otherwise provided.  This Code shall take
effect one year after such publication. (1a)

Art. 3.  Ignorance of the law excuses no one from compliance therewith. (2)

Art. 4. Laws shall have no retroactive effect, unless the contrary is provided. (3)

Art. 5. Acts executed against the provisions of mandatory or prohibitory laws shall be
void, except when the law itself authorizes their validity. (4a)

Art. 6. Rights may be waived, unless the waiver is contrary to law, public order, public
policy, morals, or good customs, or prejudicial to a third person with a right recognized
by law. (4a)

Art. 7. Laws are repealed only by subsequent ones, and their violation or non-
observance shall not be excused by disuse, or custom or practice to the contrary.

When the courts declared a law to be inconsistent with the Constitution, the former
shall be void and the latter shall govern.

Administrative or executive acts, orders and regulations shall be valid only when they
are not contrary to the laws or the Constitution. (5a)

Art. 8.  Judicial decisions applying or interpreting the laws or the Constitution shall
form a part of the legal system of the Philippines. (n)

Art. 9.  No judge or court shall decline to render judgment by reason of the silence,
obscurity or insufficiency of the laws. (6)

Art. 10.  In case of doubt in the interpretation or application of laws, it is presumed that
the lawmaking body intended right and justice to prevail. (n)

 EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 200

PROVIDING FOR THE PUBLICATION OF LAWS EITHER IN THE OFFICIAL GAZETTE OR IN

A NEWSPAPER OF GENERAL CIRCULATION IN THE PHILIPPINES AS A REQUIREMENT
FOR THEIR EFFECTIVITY.

WHEREAS, Article 2 of the Civil Code partly provides that “laws shall take effect after fifteen
days following the completion of their publication in the Official Gazette, unless it is otherwise
provided x x x;”

WHEREAS, the requirement that for laws to be effective only a publication thereof in the Official
Gazette will suffice has entailed some problems, a point recognized by the Supreme Court in
Tañada, et al. vs. Tuvera, et al. (G.R. No. 63915, December 29, 1986), when it observed that
“[t]here is much to be said of the view that the publication need not be made in the Official
Gazette, considering its erratic release and limited readership;”

WHEREAS, it was likewise observed that “[u]ndoubtedly, newspapers of general circulation

could better perform the function of communicating the laws to the people as such periodicals
are more easily available, have a wider readership, and come out regularly;” and

WHEREAS, in view of the foregoing premises Article 2 of the Civil Code should accordingly be
amended so the laws to be effective must be published either in the Official Gazette or in a
newspaper of general circulation in the country;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, CORAZON C. AQUINO, President of the Philippines, by virtue of the

powers vested in me by the Constitution, do hereby order:

SECTION 1. Laws shall take effect after fifteen days following the completion of their publication
either in the Official Gazette or in a newspaper of general circulation in the Philippines, unless it
is otherwise provided.

SEC. 2. Article 2 of Republic Act No. 386, otherwise known as the “Civil Code of the
Philippines,” and all other laws inconsistent with this Executive Order are hereby repealed or
modified accordingly.

SEC. 3. This Executive Order shall take effect immediately after its publication in the Official
Gazette.

Done in the City of Manila, this 18th day of June, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and
eighty-seven.