8/12/2019 Navarro vs. Villegas (DIGEST)
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5. Navarro vs. Villegas31 SCRA 371
FACTS: The petitioner has applied for a permit to conduct an
assembly in Plaza Miranda during a
weekday. Respondent Mayor has offered Sunken Gardens as an
alternative, guided by a lesson gained
from the events of the past few weeks. The Mayor appraised that
a public rally at Plaza Miranda, as
compared to one at the Sunken Gardens as he suggested, poses a
clearer and more imminent danger ofpublic disorders, breaches of
the peace, criminal acts, and even bloodshed as an aftermath of
such
assemblies, and petitioner has manifested that it has no means
of preventing such disorders.
ISSUE: Whether or not respondent mayor violated Article 131 in
not granting the petition to hold an
assembly in Plaza Miranda.
HELD:Respondent Mayor possesses reasonable discretion to
determine or specify the streets or public
places to be used for the assembly in order to secure convenient
use thereof by others and provide
adequate and proper policing to minimize the risks of disorder
and maintain public safety and order;
Respondent Mayor has expressly stated his willingness to grant
permits for peaceful assemblies at Plaza
Miranda during Saturdays, Sundays and holidays when they would
not cause unnecessarily great
disruption of the normal activities of the community and has
further offered Sunken Gardens as an
alternative to Plaza Miranda.
Article 131, RPC:
Prohib i t ion, in terrupt ion, and d issolut ion o f p eacefu l
meet ings. The penalty of prision correccional
in its minimum period shall be imposed upon any public officer
or employee who, without legal ground,
shall prohibit or interrupt the holding of a peaceful meeting;
or shall dissolve the same.
The same penalty shall be imposed upon any public officer or
employee who shall hinder any person
from joining any lawful association or from attending any of its
meetings.
The same penalty shall be imposed upon any public officer or
employee who shall prohibit or hinder any
person from addressing, either alone or together with others,
any petition to the authorities for thecorrection of abuses or
redress of grievances.
