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Cockfighting
aficionados now have no choice but to indulge in their favorite
"sport" only on Sundays, legal holidays and, during
fiestas, up to three days.
This
after the Supreme Court Second Division upheld the decision
of the Court of Appeals (CA) that had also upheld the decision
of the Regional Trial Court of Bohol limiting the occasions
of holding cockfighting to such days only.
Gov.
Erico Aumentado announced the Supreme Court decision Friday
during his weekly radio program "The Governor Reports".
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In
a letter to the litigants and their lawyers dated January
23, 2008, Assistant Clerk of Court Ma. Luisa Laurea
quoted the resolution of the High Tribunal dated December
5, 2007 in G.R. No. 176004.
Considering
the allegations, issues and arguments adduced in the
petition for review on certiorari, the Court resolves
to deny the petition for failure to sufficiently show
any reversible error in the assailed judgment to warrant
the exercise of this Court's discretionary appellate
jurisdiction, she wrote.
The
case stemmed from Aumentado's issuance of Executive
Order No. 2 strictly implementing Presidential Decree
No. 449.
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Having
received complaints from parents and school authorities that
their children or students skip classes to go to the cockpits
in order to earn a few "quick bucks" as motorcycle
watch boys - or even maciador or bet callers, he issued the
order.
A
certain Concepcion Ramo of Baclayon town had questioned the
legality of the order, invoking the autonomy that the Local
Government Code of 1991 gives to local government units (LGUs).
Provincial
Legal Officer Handel Lagunay however clarified that in statutory
construction, in case of "conflict of laws," the
national law prevails.
The
"conflicting laws are harmonized," hence the LGUs
regulates cockfighting through business license, mayor's permit
and such other details as location of the cockpit that must
follow local zoning ordinances.
Lagunay
also said Supreme Court decisions form part of the law of
the land, hence the decision on the Ramo vs. Aumentado case
will hold true all across the nation.
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