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L-31687 1 of 2
GENTLEMEN:
Quoted hereunder, for your information, is a resolution of this Court of even date:
"In Case G.R. No. L-31687 (Navarro vs. Villegas), the Court, after considering the pleadings and arguments of the
parties, issued the following Resolution:
Without prejudice to a more extended opinion and taking into account the following considerations:
That respondent Mayor has not denied nor absolutely refused the permit sought by petitioner;
That as stated in Primicias v. Fugoso, 80 Phil. 75, 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;
That 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 as
the site of the demonstration sought to be held this afternoon;
That experiences in connection with present assemblies and demonstrations do not warrant the Court's disbelieving
respondent Mayor's appraisal 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 of public 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;
That, consequently, every time that such assemblies are announced, the community is placed in such a state of fear
and tension that offices are closed early and employees dismissed, storefronts boarded up, classes suspended, and
transportation disrupted, to the general detriment of the public:
That civil rights and liberties can exist and be preserved only in an order society;
The petitioner has failed to show a clear specific legal duty on the part of respondent Mayor to grant their
Navarro v. Villegas G.R. No. L-31687 2 of 2
Separate Opinions
VILLAMOR, J., concurring:
The right to freedom of assembly is not denied; but this right is neither unlimited nor absolute. It is not correct to
say that the Mayor has refused to grant the permit applied for; he offered an alternative which, in my opinion, is not
unreasonable. There being no arbitrary refusal to grant permit, petitioner is not entitled to the writ.