Facts:
Monetary Board Resolution
No. 857 requires Filipino and American resident contractors for constructions
in U.S. military bases in the Philippines to surrender to the Central Bank
their dollar earnings under their respective contracts but were entitled to
utilize 90% of their surrendered dollars for importation at the preferred rate
of commodities for use within or outside said U.S. military bases.
Resolution 695 moreover,
denies their right to reacquire at the preferred rate ninety per cent (90%) of
the foreign exchange the sold or surrendered earnings to Central Bank for the purpose
of determining whether the imports against proceeds of contracts entered into
prior to April 25, 1960 are classified as dollar-to-dollar transactions or not.
George
Batchelder, an American Citizen permanently residing in the Philippines who is
engaged in the Construction Business, surrendered to the Central Bank his
dollar earnings amounting to U.S. $199,966.00. He compels Central Bank of the
Philippines to resell to him $170,210.60 at the preferred rate of exchange of
two Philippine pesos for one American dollar, more specifically P2.00375 which
was denied by the court. He then contended that said decision failed to
consider that if there was no contract obligating the bank to resell to him at
the preferred rate, the judgment of the lower court can and should nevertheless
be sustained on the basis of there being such an obligation arising from law.
Issue:
Whether or not Central
Bank has the obligation arising from law to resell to
Batchelder the dollars at the preferred rate.
Held:
Central Bank was intended
to attain basic objectives in the field of currency and finance.
“It shall be the responsibility of the Central Bank of
the Philippines to administer the monetary and banking system of the Republic.
It shall be the duty of the Central Bank to use the powers granted to it under
this Act to achieve the following objectives: (a) to maintain monetary
stability in the Philippines; (b) to preserve the international value of the
peso and the convertibility of the peso into other freely convertible
currencies; and (c) to promote a rising level of production, employment and
real income in the Philippines. "It is, of course, true that obligations
arise from 1) law; 2) contracts; 3) quasi-contracts;4) acts or omissions
punished by law and 5) quasi-delicts. One of the sources an obligation then is
a law.
A legal norm could so
require that a particular party be chargeable with a prestation or undertaking
to give or to deliver or to do or to render some service. It is an
indispensable requisite though that such a provision, thus in fact exists.
There must be a showing to that effect.As early as 1909 in Pelayo v. Lauron,
Court through Justice Torres, categorically declared: "Obligation arising
from law are not presumed."
For in the language of
Justice Street in Leung Ben v. O'Brien, a 1918 decision, such an obligation is
"a creation of the positive law."
They are ordinarily
traceable to code or statute. It is true though, as noted in the motion for reconsideration
following People v. Que Po Lay, that a Central Bank circular may have the force
and effect of law, especially when issued in pursuance of its quasi-legislative
power. That of itself, however, is no justification to
conclude that it has thereby assumed an obligation
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