Pascual vs.

Secretary of Public Works and CommunicationsGR L-10405, 29 December 1960

En Banc, Concepcion (J): 10 concur

Facts:

RA 920 (Act appropriating funds for public works) was enacted in 1953 containing an item (Section 1c[a])
for the construction, reconstruction, repair, extension and improvement of Pasig feeder road
terminals(the projected and planned subdivision roads, which were not yet constructed, within Antonio
Subdivision owned by Senator Jose C. Zulueta). Zulueta “donated” said parcels of land to the
Government 5 months after the enactment of RA 920, on the condition that if the Government violates
such condition the lands would revert to Zulueta. The provincial governor of Rizal, Wenceslao Pascual,
questioned the validity of the donation and the Constitutionality of the item in RA 920, it being not for a
public purpose.

Issue:

Whether the item in the appropriation is valid.

Held:

The right of the legislature to appropriate funds is correlative with its right to tax, under constitutional
provisions against taxation except for public purposes and prohibiting the collection of a tax for one
purpose and the devotion thereof to another purpose, no appropriation of state funds can be made for
other than a public purpose. The validity of a statute depends upon the powers of Congress at the time
of its passage or approval, not upon events occupying, or acts performed, subsequently thereto, unless
the latter consist of an amendment of the organic law, removing, with retrospective operation, the
constitutional limitation infringed by said statute. Herein, inasmuch as the land on which the projected
feeder roads were to be constructed belonged to Senator Zulueta at the time RA 920 was passed by
Congress, or approved by the President, and the disbursement of said sum became effective on 20 June
1953 pursuant to Section 13 of the Act, the result is that the appropriating sough a private purpose and
hence, null and void.