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Due Process the law which hears before it condemns

1. That there shall be a law prescribed in harmony with the general powers of the
Legislature.
2. That the law be reasonable in its operation
3. That it shall be enforced according to the regular methods of procedure prescribed.
4. It shall be applicable alike to all citizens of a state or to all of a class.
To simply put it, due process of law contemplates that every citizen shall hold his life, liberty,
property and immunities under the protection of general rules which govern society.
Procedural Due Process is a guarantee to the proper exercise of forms and procedure.
Substantive Due Process is a guarantee against the exercise of arbitrary power even when the
power is exercised according to proper forms and procedure.
Know how to distinguish each and how applied in cases:
See City of Manila vs. Judge Laguio, 455 SCRA 308 [G.R. No. 118127]
Due process requires the intrinsic validity of law in interfering with the rights of persons, liberty
and property. In the case at bar, the ordinance imposed by the City of Manila failed to conform
to the substantive requirements for the test of a valid ordinance. The interests of the public
generally, as distinguished from those of a particular class, require an interference with private
rights, but the means adopted must be reasonable necessary for the accomplishment of the
purpose and not duly oppressive upon individuals. A reasonable relation must exist between the
purpose of the police measure and the means employed for its accomplishment, for even under
the guise of protecting the public interest, personal rights and those pertaining to private property
will not be permitted to be arbitrarily invaded.
See Kwong Sing vs. City of Manila, 41 Phil. 103, [No. 15972] (Oct. 11, 1920)
The Civil rights of aliens were involved in the case at bar. An ordinance was passed requiring the
receipts must be issued in English and Spanish. The SC declared that while the rights of the
plaintiffs were no less, because they may be Chinese aliens, the ordinance was not invalid for
being unduly discriminatory. The ordinance was applied to all without distinction. If the
ordinance appears to the judicial mind to be partial or oppressive, it must be declared invalid.
The presumption however, that the Municipal authorities, in enacting the ordinance, did so with
a rational and conscientious regard for the rights of the individual and of the community.
In Laguio, it invalidates both procedural (because the ordinance failed to pass the substantive
requirements of a valid ordinance) and substantive due process (because there was no reasonable
relation). In Kwong Sing, it conforms to the guarantee of due process.
Who was Kwong Sing? is a Chinese laundryman???
What is meant by means employed are reasonably necessary for the purpose as a
requirement of substantive due process? The heart of substantive due process is the
requirement of reasonableness, or absence of exercise of arbitrary power. These are necessarily
relative concepts which depend on the circumstances of every case.

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