the Official gazzette

present issue presented is if An Executive Order is posted Online, will it satisfy the requirement as set forth by Article 2 of the Civil Code. The civil code provides the following:

“Art. 2.  Laws shall take effect after fifteen days following the completion of their publication in the Official Gazette, unless it is otherwise provided.  This Code shall take effect one year after such publication. (1a) “

Article 2, provides that the law woll take effect upon publication in an official Gazette. The term unless otherwise provided, to be clear, refers to the date of effectivity of the law, and not the form of circulation. So, from this we can consider that as long as the law is accesible to all, the law is deemed to be effective. In Tanada vs. Tuvera, the Supreme Court provided in the decision:

“Publication in the Official Gazette is necessary in those cases where the legislation itself does not provide for its effectivity date, for then the date of publication is material for determining its date of effectivity, which is the 15th day following its publication, but not when the law itself provides for the date when it goes into effect.Article 2 does not preclude the requirement of publication in the Official Gazette, even if the law itself provides for the date of its effectivity.

The publication of all presidential issuances of a public nature or of general applicability is mandated by law. Obviously, presidential decrees that provide for fines, forfeitures or penalties for their violation or otherwise impose burdens on the people, such as tax revenue measures, fall within this category. Other presidential issuances which apply only to particular persons or class of persons such as administrative and executive orders need not be published on the assumption that they have been circularized to all concern.

The Court therefore declares that presidential issuances of general application, which have not been published, shall have no force and effect.'”

In the case at Bar, the Supreme Court provides that the law be published in order for it to have force and effect. At present, we can consider that the juris prudence with regard to issues arising from electronic issues is still in its infacny, we must tread lightly upon issues regarding online publications since we have no concrete definition as of yet of what is officially published online.