Metro Manila Memorial Park v.

Secretary1
This case affirmed the power of the state, under its police power, to regulate prices of goods and services.
In this case, certain business establishments questioned the validity of the tax deduction scheme under the
Senior Citizens Act. Originally, the said law (passed in 1992), required business establishments to grant a
20% discount to senior citizens, provided, that such establishments may claim the full cost as a tax credit.
On the year of 2004 however, this law was amended. Under the amendment, the establishments could
now only claim the cost not as a full tax credit, but only as a tax deduction. Under the amendment, the
business establishments would effectively shoulder 70% of the cost of the discounts and could recover
only 30% as a tax deduction.
In upholding the validity of the amendment, the Supreme Court reasoned that the 20% senior citizen
discount is a reasonable exercise of police power. It described the subject regulation as similar to price
control or rate of return on investment control laws which are traditionally regarded as police power
measures.
It reiterated that this species of laws generally regulate public utilities or industries/enterprises imbued
with public interest in order to protect consumers from exorbitant or unreasonable pricing as well as
temper corporate greed by controlling the rate of return on investment of these corporations considering
that they have a monopoly over the goods or services that they provide to the general public. Thus, the
Court concluded that it is a settled doctrine that the State can employ police power measures to regulate
the pricing of goods and services, and, hence, the profitability of business establishments in order to
pursue legitimate State objectives for the common good, provided that the regulation does not go too far
as to amount to "taking."

1 Metro Manila Memorial Park v. Secretary of Department of Social Welfare and Development, G.R. No.
175356, December 3, 2013.