FACTS:
President Corazon C. Aquino issued Executive
Order (E.O.) No. 279 authorizing the DENR Secretary to accept, consider and
evaluate proposals from foreign-owned corporations or foreign investors for
contracts or agreements involving either technical or financial assistance for
large-scale exploration, development, and utilization of minerals, which, upon
appropriate recommendation of the Secretary, the President may execute with the
foreign proponent. However, Sec. 8 of EO 279
provides that it shall take effect immediately after publication. Petitioners argued
that the 15-day period under EO 200 is required.
ISSUE:
Whether E.O. No. 279 is an effective and a
validly enacted statute.
RULING:
Yes. There is nothing in E.O. No. 200 that prevents a law from taking effect on a date other than even before the 15-day period after its publication. Where a law provides for its own date of effectivity, such date prevails over that prescribed by E.O. No. 200. Indeed, this is the very essence of the phrase "unless it is otherwise provided" in Section 1 thereof. Section1, E.O. No. 200, therefore, applies only when a statute does not provide for its own date of effectivity. What is mandatory under E.O. No. 200, and what due process requires is the publication of the law for without such notice and publication, there would be no basis for the application of the maxim "ignorantia legis non excusat."
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