Article 25,Chapter 2: Human Relations

Main Topic: Chapter 2: Human Relations
Sub-topic: Curtailment of Thoughtless Extravagance

Art. 25. Thoughtless extravagance in expenses for pleasure or display during a period of acute public want or emergency may be stopped by order of the courts at the instance of any government or private charitable institutions.

Discussion/Explanation:

1. Reason for Curtailing Thoughtless Extravagance

Thoughtless extravagance during emergencies may incite the passions of those who cannot afford to spend.

2. Who can Bring the Action?

Only a charitable institutions(whether government or private) may bring the action. The Mayor of a city, should he desire to stop an alleged display of extravagance by a social organization cannot summarily order the stopping all by himself. He has to ask for a court order. A Mayor indeed cannot just take the law into his own hands, no matter how noble or sincere his motive may be.

In 2008, Baguio City suspended the issuance of permits for motorcades along its roads, citing the a Civil Code provision against splurging during critical times. In 2002, a court in Nueva Vizcaya issued a “temporary restraining order (TRO) preventing the Sangguniang Panlalawigan members from buying 13 luxury vehicles” for their own individual use, citing the same Civil Code provision.

Anyone, of course, is entitled to spend his money in any manner he pleases, so long as it is not against the law. Perhaps this is captured by the saying: “Work hard, party hard”. The law, however, provides for a limitation against thoughtless extravagance.

The rationale for this legal provision is succinctly pointed out by a respected civil law author: “When the rich indulge in thoughtless extravagance or display during a period of acute public want or emergency, they may unwittingly kindle the flame of unrest in the hearts of the poor who thereby become more keenly conscious of their privation and poverty and who may rise against the obvious inequality.” (Tolentino, I Civil Code of the Philippines [1990], p. 91)

There is yet no definitive Supreme Court ruling which involves this legal provision. Nevertheless, it would appear that three requisites must be present for this provision to apply. First, there must be an acute public want or emergency. Second, there must be a thoughtless extravagance in expenses for pleasure or display. Third, only government or private charitable institutions could file the action seeking to stop the thoughtless extravagance.

1. On the first requisite for the application of the law, the text provides that extravagance “may be stopped”. To me this means that the extravagance must be at least an act that is to be done or that is currently being done. When the act is already done, there is nothing to be stopped.

2. If government funds were used to fund the dinner, I wonder if the requisites of a taxpayer suit are in order. That being said, the purpose of a taxpayer suit is to prevent taxes from being spent unnecessarily. Since the deed has been done, I think it stands to reason that through the rationale of a taxpayer suit, such a suit can be used to demand private accountability from public officials to pay for the dinner from their personal accounts.

3. There is no jurisprudence that defines “private charitable institution” for the purpose of interpreting the law. I argue that the rationale of the law should allow for loose people’s organizations or people’s movements, even if unincorporated or unregistered in the Securities and Exchange Commission or the Cooperative Development Agency, as the case may be.

4. The Civil Code operates to protect people from each other. What protects us from the excesses of government is the Constitution. In relation to my second point, I think the text of Sec. 1 Art. XI, Phil. Const., mandating that government officers should live modest lives should be a sufficient cause of action to take back the money spent under the principle of continuing mandamus (G.R. Nos. 171947-48, MMDA v. Concerned Residents of Manila Bay, December 18, 2008)

5. The question for me is whether Philippine laws, including Rep. Act No. 6713 (Code of Ethics for Government Employees) apply to the sovereign and their entourage outside Philippine territory. I submit that they do.