Legal Technique and Logic

Assignment 3
Deadline: February 16, 2018, 11:59PM
• Name your .doc/.docx files in the following manner: Surname, First
Name, Assignment number, Section.
• Even: for Rhaegar/Odd: for the Republic

Viserys is a statistician by profession. He loves applying his expertise in

probability by playing poker, blackjack, mahjong, the super lotto, and other
games of chance. He wins a lot and loses a lot more.

He ran for and won a seat in the Philippine Senate. Consistent with his first love
of spreading the use of statistics to every province in the country, and after
finding the General Appropriations Act (which was already enacted) insufficient
to further his passion, Senator Viserys authored a bill entitled “An Act
Appropriating Emergency Funds for the Philippine Amusement Gaming
Corporation and for Other Purposes.” The significant provisions of the bill are as
follows:

“Section 2. Declaration of policy. It shall be the policy of the State to

invigorate the government-sanctioned gambling industry by
making a long-term commitment of building at least one (1) casino
in every province and city in the country.”

“Section 3. Appropriation. The amount of ONE HUNDRED

TWENTY MILLION PESOS (Php 120,000,000.00) is hereby
appropriated for the use of PAGCOR to start the urgent need for
the construction of new casinos in the different provinces of the
Philippines.”

“Section 5. Donations to PAGCOR exempt from donor’s tax and other

kinds of taxes. All donations made to the PAGCOR by any person
shall be exempt from donor’s tax and any from other kind of taxes
as defined in the National Internal Revenue Code.”

The bill was passed by Congress – first by the Senate and later by the House of
Representatives. President Theon, a gambling buddy of Senator Viserys,
willingly approved the bill into law.

Rhaegar, a Filipino citizen and dutiful taxpayer, filed before the Supreme Court a
petition for certiorari and prohibition against Executive Secretary Tywin and
Budget Secretary Balerion to enjoin the government from spending public funds
for the furtherance of legalized gambling, believing that doing so is detrimental
to public morality. He likewise wants to have the law (as a whole and especially
Sections 3 and 5 cited above) declared as void for being created in violation of the
Constitution.

The Supreme Court forwarded the petition to the Court of Appeals for judgment.
The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), arguing for the law’s constitutionality,
handled the cause of the government.

After reception of evidence, the CA, upon motion of both the OSG and Rhaegar,
ordered the parties to file their trial memorandum through email on or before
February 16, 2018, 11:59PM.

Without the need to dwell on the morality of legalized gambling, prepare a trial
memorandum for/against the constitutionality of the assailed law.