G.R. No. 100152, March 31, 2000
- Police Power as exercised by LGUs, restrictions and qualifications
- Power of city mayor to grant/cancel/revoke business permits
- Granting of business permits vs. granting of permit to practice profession
FACTS:
Petitioner applied with the Office of the City Mayor of Iligan for a business permit. Permit was therefor issued, subject to certain conditions like prohibition of putting up an optical clinic, examining and/or prescribing reading and similar optical glasses, etc. When it was found that petitioner violated these conditions, its business permit was cancelled.
ISSUE:
- Whether or not the imposition of special conditions by the public respondents were acts ultra vires
RULING:
Police Power exercised by LGUs
Police power as an inherent attribute of sovereignty is the power to prescribe regulations to promote the health, morals, peace, education, good order or safety and general welfare of the people. The State, through the legislature, has delegated the exercise of police power to local government units, as agencies of the State, in order to effectively accomplish and carry out the declared objects of their creation. This delegation of police power is embodied in the general welfare clause of the Local Government Code xxx
The scope of police power has been held to be so comprehensive as to encompass almost all matters affecting the health, safety, peace, order, morals, comfort and convenience of the community. Police power is essentially regulatory in nature and the power to issue licenses or grant business permits, if exercised for a regulatory and not revenue-raising purpose, is within the ambit of this power.
Power of city mayor to grant business permits
The authority of city mayors to issue or grant licenses and business permits is beyond cavil. It is provided for by law.
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However, the power to grant or issue licenses or business permits must always be exercised in accordance with law, with utmost observance of the rights of all concerned to due process and equal protection of the law.
But can city mayor cancel business permits or impose special conditions? As aptly discussed by the Solicitor General in his Comment, the power to issue licenses and permits necessarily includes the corollary power to revoke, withdraw or cancel the same. And the power to revoke or cancel, likewise includes the power to restrict through the imposition of certain conditions.
Did the conditions or restrictions imposed amount to a confiscation of the business?
Distinction must be made between the grant of a license or permit to do business and the issuance of a license to engage in the practice of a particular profession. The first is usually granted by the local authorities and the second is issued by the Board or Commission tasked to regulate the particular profession. A business permit authorizes the person, natural or otherwise, to engage in business or some form of commercial activity. A professional license, on the other hand, is the grant of authority to a natural person to engage in the practice or exercise of his or her profession.
In the case at bar, what is sought by petitioner from respondent City Mayor is a permit to engage in the business of running an optical shop. It does not purport to seek a license to engage in the practice of optometry as a corporate body or entity, although it does have in its employ, persons who are duly licensed to practice optometry by the Board of Examiners in Optometry.
