G.R. No. 188635

Brenda Nazareth vs Hon. Reynaldo Villar, et al

G.R. No. 188635

Facts:

Nazareth, the Regional Director of the Department of Science and Technology in the Region IX, has approved the release of Magna Carta benefits to the covered officials and employees commencing 1998, 1999, and 2001. The said appropriation has no provision in the GAA, which means that it has not been officially approved yet.

Issue:

Whether or not the release of the Magna Carta funds for 1998, 1999, and 2001 qualified officials and employees legal and valid.

Held:

It is not valid but the officials and employees do not have to reimburse the disallowed allowance. According to Section 25 (5) Article IV of the Constitution, the President, the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and the heads of Constitutional Commissions are authorized to transfer appropriations to augment any item in the GAA for their respective offices in their respective appropriations.

When the statute itself enumerates the exceptions to the application of the general rule, the exceptions are strictly but reasonably construed. The exceptions extend only as far as their language fairly warrants, and all doubts should be resolved in favor of the general provision rather than the exceptions. Where the general rule is established by a statute with exceptions, none but the enacting authority can curtail the former. Not even the courts may add to the latter by implication, and it is a rule that an express exception excludes all others, although it is always proper in determining the applicability of the rule to inquire whether, in a particular case, it accords with reason and justice.

The appropriate and natural office of the exception is to exempt something from the scope of the general words of a statute, which is otherwise within the scope and meaning of such general words. Consequently, the existence of an exception in a statute clarifies the intent that the statute shall apply to all cases not excepted. Exceptions are subject to the rule of strict construction; hence, any doubt will be resolved in favor of the general provision and against the exception. Indeed, the liberal construction of a statute will seem to require in many circumstances that the exception, by which the operation of the statute is limited or abridged, should receive a restricted construction.