1/4/2021 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly In the landmark case of Chavez v. Gonzales,[31] the Court laid down a more detailed approach in dealing with free speech regulations. Its approach was premised on the rational consideration that "the determination x x x of whether there is an impermissible restraint on the freedom of speech has always been based on the circumstances of each case, including the nature of the restraint." The Court discussed: Given that deeply ensconced our fundamental law is the hostility against all prior restraints on speech, and any act that restrains speech is presumed invalid, and "any act that restrains speech is hobbled by the presumption of invalidity and should be greeted with furrowed brows," it is important to stress that not all prior restraints on speech are invalid. Certain previous restraints may be permitted by the Constitution, but determined only upon a careful evaluation of the challenged act as against the appropriate test by which it should be measured against. Hence, it is not enough to determine whether the challenged act constitutes some form of restraint on the freedom of speech. A distinction has to be made whether the restraint is (1) a contentneutral regulation, i.e., merely concerned with the incidents of speech, or one that merely controls the time, place, or manner, and under well[-]defined standards; or (2) a content-based restraint or censorship, i.e., the restriction is based on the subject matter of the utterance or speech. The cast of the restriction determines the test by which the challenged act is assayed with. When the speech restraints take the form of a content-neutral regulation, only a substantial governmental interest is required for its validity. Because regulations of this type are not designed to suppress any particular message, they are not subject to the strictest form of judicial scrutiny but an intermediate approachsomewhere between the mere rationality that is required of any other law and the compelling interest standard applied to contentbased restrictions. The test is called intermediate because the Court will not merely rubberstamp the validity of a law but also require that the restrictions be narrowly-tailored to promote an important or significant governmental interest that is unrelated to the suppression of expression. The intermediate approach has been formulated in this manner: A governmental regulation is sufficiently justified if it is within the constitutional power of the Government; if it furthers an important or substantial governmental interest; if the governmental interest is unrelated to the suppression of free expression; and if the incident restriction on alleged [freedom of speech & expression] is no greater than is essential to the furtherance of that interest. On the other hand, a governmental action that restricts freedom of speech or of the press based on content is given the strictest scrutiny in light of its https://elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/65669 9/60