4/7/2021
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be filed with the U.P. Law Center in order to be effective. Section 4, Chapter
2, Book VII of the Administrative Code of 1987 requires every rule adopted
by an agency to be filed with the U.P. Law Center to be effective. However,
in Board of Trustees of the Government Service Insurance System v.
Velasco, this Court pronounced that "[n]ot all rules and regulations
adopted by every government agency are to be filed with the UP Law
Center." Interpretative regulations and those merely internal in
nature are not required to be filed with the U.P. Law Center.
Paragraph 9 (a) of the Guidelines for Receiving and Publication of Rules and
Regulations Filed with the U.P. Law Center states:
9. Rules and Regulations which need not be filed with the U.P.
Law Center, shall, among others, include but not be limited to,
the following:
a. Those which are interpretative regulations and
those merely internal in nature, that is, regulating only
the personnel of the Administrative agency and not
the public. (Emphasis supplied)
RR 15-2013 is an internal issuance for the guidance of "all internal revenue officers and
others concerned." It is also an interpretative issuance vis-à-vis RA 10378, thus:
SECTION 2. SCOPE. — Pursuant to Section 244 of the National Internal
Revenue Code of 1997 (NIRC), as amended, and Section 5 of RA No. 10378,
these Regulations are hereby promulgated to implement RA No. 10378,
amending Sections 28(A)(3)(a), 109, 118 and 236 of the NIRC.
RR 15-2013 merely sums up the rules by which international carriers may avail of
preferential rates or exemption from income tax on their gross revenues derived from
the carriage of persons and their excess baggage based on the principle of reciprocity
or an applicable tax treaty or international agreement to which the Philippines is a
signatory. Interpretative regulations are intended to interpret, clarify or explain existing
statutory regulations under which the administrative body operates. Their purpose or
objective is merely to construe the statute being administered and purport to do no
more than interpret the statute. Simply, they try to say what the statute means and
refer to no single person or party in particular but concern all those belonging to the
same class which may be covered by the said rules.[56]
Indeed, when an administrative rule is merely interpretative in nature, its applicability
needs nothing further than its bare issuance, for it gives no real consequence more
than what the law itself has already prescribed.[57] As such, RR 15-2013 need not pass
through a public hearing or consultation, get published, nay, registered with the U.P.
Law Center for its effectivity.
ACCORDINGLY, the petition is DENIED for lack of merit. The Orders dated September
15, 2015 and January 8, 2016 of the Regional Trial Court, Branch 77, Quezon City, in
Special Civil Action No. R-QZN-13-05590-CV are AFFIRMED.
SO ORDERED.
https://elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/65912
20/25
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