G.R. No.

L-5279 October 31, 1955

PHILIPPINE ASSOCIATION OF COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES, ETC., petitioner,

FACTS:
Act No. 2706 approved in 1917 is entitled, "An Act making the inspection and
recognition of private schools and colleges obligatory for the Secretary of Public
Instruction." Under its provisions, the Department of Education has, for the past 37
years, supervised and regulated all private schools in this country apparently without
audible protest, nay, with the general acquiescence of the general public and the parties
concerned
ISSUE: The petitioning colleges and universities request that Act No. 2706 as amended
by Act No. 3075 and Commonwealth Act No. 180 be declared unconstitutional,
because:
A. They deprive owners of schools and colleges as well as teachers and parents of
liberty and property without due process of law;
B. They deprive parents of their natural rights and duty to rear their children for civic
efficiency; and
C. Their provisions conferring on the Secretary of Education unlimited power and
discretion to prescribe rules and standards constitute an unlawful delegation of
legislative power
HELD:
In support of their first proposition petitioners contend that the right of a citizen to own
and operate a school is guaranteed by the Constitution, and any law requiring previous
governmental approval or permit before such person could exercise said right, amounts
to censorship of previous restraint, a practice abhorent to our system of law and
government. Petitioners obviously refer to section 3 of Act No. 2706 as amended which
provides that before a private school may be opened to the public it must first obtain a
permit from the Secretary of Education. The Solicitor General on the other hand points
out that none of the petitioners has cause to present this issue, because all of them
have permits to operate and are actually operating by virtue of their permits.1 And they
do not assert that the respondent Secretary of Education has threatened to revoke their
permits. They have suffered no wrong under the terms of law—and, naturally need no
relief in the form they now seek to obtain
Mere apprehension that the Secretary of Education might under the law withdraw the
permit of one of petitioners does not constitute a justiciable controversy
petitioners' third proposition that the questioned statutes "conferring on the Secretary of
Education unlimited power and discretion to prescribe rules and standards constitute an
unlawful delegation of legislative power- "Nowhere in this Act" petitioners argue "can
one find any description, either general or specific, of what constitutes a 'general
standard of efficiency.' Nowhere in this Act is there any indication of any basis or
condition to ascertain what is 'adequate instruction to the public.' Nowhere in this Act is
there any statement of conditions, acts, or factors, which the Secretary of Education
must take into account to determine the 'efficiency of instruction.
At any rate, petitioners do not show how these standards have injured any of them or
interfered with their operation. Wherefore, no reason exists for them to assail the validity
of the power nor the exercise of the power by the Secretary of Education
For all the foregoing considerations, reserving to the petitioners the right to institute in
the proper court, and at the proper time, such actions as may call for decision of the
issue herein presented by them, this petition for prohibition will be denied. So ordered

NOTES: 1 Court will not pass upon the validity of statute at the instance of one who has
availed itself of its benefits. (Fahey vs. Mallonee, 322 U. S. 245; 91 L. Ed. 2030; Phil.
Scrappers Inc. vs. Auditor-General, 96 Phil., 449.)
2
Cf. Montenegro vs. Castañeda, 48 Off. Gaz (8) 3392.
3
It should be observed that petitioners may not assert complete liberty to teach, in their
schools, as or what they please; because the Constitution says "All schools shall aim to
develop moral character, personal discipline, civil conscience and vocational efficiency
and to teach the duties of citizenship." (Art. XIV, Sec. 5.) Would petitioners assert that
pursuant to their civil liberties under the Bill of Rights they may refuse to teach in their
schools the duties of citizenship or that they may authorize the broadcast therein of
immoral doctrines?