THE UNITED STATES v.

ANICETO BARRIAS
G.R. No. 4349, September 24, 1908

TOPIC: Art. VI, Sec. 1

FACTS:
● Defendant Aniceto Barrias was charged in CFI with violations of Par. 70 and 83 of Circular no. 397 of
the Insular Collector of Customs.
Paragraph 70 of Circular No. 397 reads as follows:
No heavily loaded casco, lighter, or other similar craft shall be permitted to move in the Pasig
River without being towed by steam or moved by other adequate power.

Paragraph 83 reads, in part, as follows:

For the violation of any part of the foregoing regulations, the persons offending shall be liable to
a fine of not less than P5 and not more than P500, at the discretion of the court.

● Counsel for the appellant attacked the validity of paragraph 70 on two grounds: First that it is
unauthorized by section 19 of Act No. 355; and, second, that if the acts of the Philippine Commission
bear the interpretation of authorizing the Collector to promulgate such a law, they are void, as
constituting an illegal delegation of legislative power.
● The complaint in this instance was framed with reference to sections 311 and 319 [19 and311] at No.
355 of the Philippine Customs Administrative Acts, as amended by Act Nos.1235 and 1480. Under Act
No. 1235, the Collector is not only empowered to make suitable regulations, but also to "fix penalties for
violation thereof," not exceeding a fine of P500.

ISSUE: WON Collector of Customs can fix the penalty of a law.

RULING: The Court ruled in the Negative.

Although the Collector of Customs can make and publish rules and regulations but it cannot make the duty of
the legislature to fix the penalty of a certain law. It is in this case that it will be an illegal delegation of power.

One of the settled maxims in constitutional law is, that the power conferred upon the legislature to make laws
cannot be delegated by that department to anybody or authority. Where the sovereign power of the State has
located the authority, there it must remain; only by the constitutional agency alone the laws must be made until
the constitution itself is changed.

This doctrine is based on the ethical principle that such a delegated power constitutes not only a right but a
duty to be performed by the delegate by the instrumentality of his own judgment acting immediately upon the
matter of legislation and not through the intervening mind of another.