Villanueva vs.

Iloilo City GR L-26521, 28 December 1968 En Banc, Castro (J): 8 concur Facts: On 30 September 1946, the Municipal Board of Iloilo City enacted Ordinance 86 imposing license tax fees upon tenement house (P25); tenemen house partly engaged or wholly engaged in and dedicated to business in Baza, Iznart, and Aldeguer Streets (P24 per apartment); and tenement house, padtly or wholly engaged in business in other streets (P12 per apartment). The validity of such ordinance was challenged by Eusebio and Remedios Villanueva, owners of four tenement houses containing 34 apartments. The Supreme Court held the ordinance to be ultra vires. On 15 January 1960, however, the municipal board, believing that it acquired authority to enact an ordinance of the same nature pursuant to the Local Autonomy Act, enacted Ordinance 11 (series of 1960), Eusebio and Remedios Villaniueva assailed the ordinance anew. Issue: Whether Ordinance 11 violate the rule of uniformity of taxation. Held: The Court has ruled that tenement houses constitute a distinct class of property; and that taxes are uniform and equal when imposed upon all property of the same class or character within the taxing authority. The fact that the owners of the other classes of buildings in Iloilo are not imposed upon by the ordinance, or that tenement taxes are imposed in other cities do not violate the rule of equality and uniformity. The rule does not require that taxes for the same purpose should be imposed in different territorial subdivisions at the same time. So long as the burden of tax falls equally and impartially on all owners or operators of tenement houses similarly classified or situated, equality and uniformity is accomplished. The presumption that tax statutes are intended to operate uniformly and equally was not overthrown herein.