Butuan Sawmill, Inc. v. City of Butuan

FACTS:

The Petitioner was granted a legislative franchise under RA 399 for an electric light, heat, and power system in Butuan and Cabadbaran, Agusan, together with the issuance of a certificate of public convenience and necessity by the Public Service Commission. However, the City of Butuan issued Ordinances numbered 11, 131 and 148 imposing a 2% tax on the gross sales or receipts of any business operated in the city. Butuan Sawmill, Inc. questioned the validity of the taxing ordinance which is deemed to have impaired the obligation of contract thereby depriving the Petitioner of property without due process of law. On the other hand, Respondent maintained that it was vested with the “power to provide for the levy and collection of taxes for general and special purposes” as stipulated in its charter which was granted in 1950.

ISSUE:

W/N the inclusion of the franchise business of Petitioners falls within the coverage of the taxing ordinances pursuant to the city’s power of taxation.

HELD:

No. the inclusion of the franchise business of the Butuan Sawmill, Inc. by the City of Butuan is beyond the broad power of taxation of the city under its charter. Neither could the latter’s power therein granted be taken as an authority delegated to the city to amend or alter the franchise, considering the absence of an express or specific grant of power to do so. Where there are two statutes, the earlier special and the latter general – and the terms of the general are broad enough to include the matter provided for in the special – the fact that one is special and the other is general creates a presumption that the special is to be considered as a remaining exception to the general as a general law of the land, while the other as the law of a particular case.

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