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.