Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Aguinaldo
Alvarez v. Guingona, Jr.
252 SCRA 695
FACTS:
In 1993, House Bill 8817 (An Act Converting the Municipality of Santiago into an
Independent Component City to be known as the City of Santiago) was passed in the House of
Representatives.
In May 1993, a Senate Bill (SB 1243) of similar title and content with that of HB 8817
In January 1994, HB 8817 was transmitted to the Senate. In February 1994, the Senate
conducted a public hearing on SB 1243. In March 1994, the Senate Committee on Local
Government rolled out its recommendation for approval of HB 8817 as it was totally the same
Now Senator Heherson Alvarez et al are assailing the constitutionality of the said law on
the ground that the bill creating the law did not originate from the lower house and that City of
Santiago was not able to comply with the income of at least P20M per annum in order for it to
be a city. That in the computation of the reported average income of P20,974,581.97, the IRA
was included which should not be. If it is not included, the income of Santiago amounts to P13
million only, hence does not qualify with the requirements of the law.
ISSUE:
Whether or not RA 7720 is invalid for not being originally from the HOR.
income.
HELD:
NO. The house bill was filed first before the senate bill as the record shows. Further, the
Senate held in abeyance any hearing on the said SB while the HB was on its 1 st, 2nd and
3rd reading in the HOR. The Senate only conducted its 1 st hearing on the said SB one month after
the HB was transmitted to the Senate (in anticipation of the said HB as well).
YES. The IRA should be added in the computation of an LGU’s average annual income as
was done in the case at bar. The IRAs are items of income because they form part of the gross
accretion of the funds of the local government unit. The IRAs regularly and automatically accrue
to the local treasury without need of any further action on the part of the local government
unit. They thus constitute income which the local government can invariably rely upon as the
To reiterate, IRAs are a regular, recurring item of income; nil is there a basis, too, to
classify the same as a special fund or transfer, since IRAs have a technical definition and
meaning all its own as used in the Local Government Code that unequivocally makes it distinct
from special funds or transfers referred to when the Code speaks of “funding support from the