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These explanations of the defendant are not satisfactory, nor can they serve to That section provides as follows:
exonerate him as he claims because, in the first place, he should not have
Any officer charged with the duty of assessing real property, who shall
relied on what the interest party himself, Francisco Madlonito, told him, nor
willfully omit from the tax lists real property which he knows to be
upon the information which, at the time he inspected and measured the lands,
lawfully taxable, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and punishable by a
was furnished him by the two laborers of whose services he availed himself for
fine not exceeding one thousand pesos, or imprisonment not
the actual performance of that labor. He himself ought to have verified the
exceeding two years, or both, in the discretion of the court.
correctness of the information and have informed himself of the true area of the
land and of all the improvements thereon, they being in sight, in order to include
Section 49 of the same Act, No. 82, provides that the real estate of the relative to said tax, provided that someone representing the provincial board or
municipality shall be valued and assessed for taxation by a board, to consist of better said, a provincial official, should be a member of the municipal board of
the president, the municipal treasurer, and a specially authorized deputy of the assessors — a purpose and object which are more accentuated in Act No. 2238
provincial treasurer, which board shall be known as the municipal board of by expressly creating the office of provincial assessor for the revision and
assessors. correction of assessments and valuations of real property declared in the
municipalities — and to enable this official to take a direct and active part in
Said section 49 was amended by section 1 of Act No. 1930, so that the
preparing the lists of property subject to said tax. Said Act 2238 is therefore
aforementioned municipal board of assessors should consist of the municipal
intimately related to the two Acts Nos. 82 and 1930 aforecited, and is virtually
president the municipal treasurer and, instead of the deputy to the provincial
a complement of the same in so far as regards the declaration and assessment
treasurer, of a third member to be appointed by the provincial board.
of taxable property.
Subsequently, on February 11, 1913, Act No. 2238 was passed, section 1 of
Said Act No. 2238 provides in section 18 that all Acts or parts of Acts in conflict
which created the position of provincial assessor for each province containing
therewith are repealed. In the two aforementioned Acts, Nos. 82 and 1930, in
municipalities organized under the provisions of the Municipal Code. Section 2
so far as relates to the assessment and valuation of taxable real property in
of this Act provides that provincial assessors shall be allowed such number of
municipalities, there is, strictly speaking, nothing which may be said to be in
deputies and clerks as shall be fixed by the provincial board with the approval
conflict with said Act no. 2238, not only for the reason above stated, but also
of the Executive Secretary, and section 4, in reciting the duties of the provincial
because this Act has done nothing but change the method and procedure
assessor, and, consequently, those of his deputies, provides that, when
provided in Act No. 82, the Municipal Code, for determining the taxable real
directed by provincial board, he shall revise and correct the assessments and
property in the municipalities and the value thereof, by means of the
valuations of real property for the purpose of taxation, and , in the manner set
intervention which in said procedure is given to the provincial assessors. But
forth in the Act, revise and correct, when so directed, any and all assessments
that municipalities are not excluded from taking part in the proceedings is
and valuations for taxation, make a correct and just assessments and state the
shown by the fact that section 9 of this Act No. 2238 provides that, prior to
true value of the real property. Other sections of this Act confer upon the
directing the provincial assessor in accordance with the provisions thereof, to
provincial assessor various powers in connection with the preparation of the
proceed to revise and correct the assessments and valuations of real property,
lists of property subject to assessment, and, finally, establishes the procedure
the provincial board shall require each municipal council of the municipalities
that must be followed where any municipality or any property owner does not
organized under the provisions of the Municipal Code (Act No. 82) to prepare,
agree with the assessment and valuation so made.
in such form and detail as the Executive Secretary may prescribe, a general
As may be seen, the purpose of Act No. 2238, in creating the office of provincial schedule of the values of the different classes of land for the municipality which
assessor and allowing him such number of deputies and clerks as shall be fixed shall be forwarded to the provincial board for approval, and such schedule,
by the provincial board with the approval of the Executive Secretary, was the when approved by the provincial board, shall serve the assessor as basis for
same as that of Act No. 82, in creating, in section 49 thereof, the municipal the valuation and assessment. It also provides in section 13 that it shall be the
board of assessors; and Act No. 1930, in amending said section in the manner duty of the municipal president, secretary and treasurer and all municipal
aforementioned, to wit, by providing that all the real property, taxable or subject employees, to render every assistance in their power to the provincial assessor.
to the land tax, existing in the municipalities of these Islands, should be
Furthermore, one of the rules of interpretation, as very properly said by
assessed, and, for this purpose and in order that the provincial board should
defendant's counsel in his brief, is that "when there are two laws on the same
exercise the necessary and proper supervision over acts of the municipalities
subject enacted on different dates, and it appears evidently by the form and
essence of the later law that it was the intention of the legislator to cover therein real property) it is evident that the said penal provisions in force and is
the whole of the subject, and that it is a complete and perfect system, or is in applicable to the provincial assessors and their deputies referred to in Act No.
itself a provision, the latest law should be considered as a legal declaration that 2238, and that the lower court did not err in sentencing defendant, under the
all that is comprised therein shall continue in force and that all that is not shall provisions of said section 87, to the penalty specified in the judgment appealed
rejected and repealed." A simple perusal of Act No. 2238 is sufficient to show from.
that it was not the intention of the legislature to cover all matters relative to the
The fact that the cadastral survey of the municipality of Tacloban was to
assessment and valuation of the taxable real property of the municipalities, and
terminated at the time of the discovery of the omission made by the defendant
subject, because, as aforesaid, the Act in question is closely related to Act No.
in the report presented by him to the provincial assessor, and that such
82, of which it is virtually a complement in so far as regards the organization of
omission might have been repaired by correcting the list or report by means of
the service of making the lists for the complete and adequate collection to the
revision and new assessment made by the provincial assessor himself on his
tax on the real property in municipalities organized under said Act No. 82. It
proceeding with the investigation of the misdemeanor committed by defendant,
cannot, therefore, be maintained that section 87 of this latter Act should be
does not exempt the latter from liability, because what the law punished in said
considered as repealed, in so far as it prescribes the penalty incurred by any
section 87 is the fact of the willful omission, by the official charged with the duty
official who, being charged with the duty of assessing real property, wilfully
of assessing the real property in the tax list, of any property which he knows to
omits form the tax lists any real property which he knows to be lawfully taxable.
be lawfully taxable; and it is immaterial whether said omission can or cannot
Repeals by implications are not favored, and will not be decreed, subsequently be remedied, because it constitutes in itself a false representation
unless it is manifest that the legislature so intended. As laws are in that document and a fraud committed by the public official to prejudice of the
presumed to be passed with deliberation and with full knowledge of all Government or with intent to cause such prejudice.
existing ones on the subject, it is but reasonable to conclude that in
By reason of the foregoing, and the judgment appealed from being in
passing a statute it was not intended to interfere with or abrogate any
accordance with the merits of the case and the law, we hereby affirm the same,
former law relating to same matter, unless the repugnancy between the
with the costs against appellant. So ordered.
two is not only irreconcilable, but also clear and convincing, and flowing
necessarily from the language used, unless the later act fully embraces Arellano, C.J., Torres and Johnson, JJ., concur.
the subject matter of the earlier, or unless the reason for the earlier act Carson and Trent, JJ., dissent.
is beyond peradventure removed. Hence, every effort must be used to
make all acts stand and if, by any reasonable construction, they can be
reconciled, the later act will not operate as a repeal of the earlier. (23
Am. and Eng. Ency. of Law, p. 489, and cases there cited [vol. 26, pp.
721, 726].)
As said Act No. 2238 provides no penalty for the provincial assessor or his
deputy who, in revising the assessment and preparing the tax list of real
property, wilfully makes any omission such as that aforestated; and as the
provincial assessor, or his deputy, is a public official or an official of the class
referred to in section 87, it being immaterial whether he be a provincial or a
municipal official (for it is sufficient that it be the duty of such official to assess