Finally, in 1998, Congress enacted R.A. No. 8502, the Jewelry Industry Development Act of 1998, a law to support, promote, and encourage the growth and development of the predominantly small and medium scale jewelry industries. R.A. No. 8502 did not use the term cottage industry; instead, it characterized businesses engaged in jewelry-making as:
a) micro jewelry enterprise less than P1,500,001
b) small scale jewelry enterprise P1,500,001 – P15,000,000
c) medium jewelry enterprise P15,000,001 – P60,000,000
d) large scale jewelry enterprise more than P60,000,000.[49]
On the other hand, the LLDA was created by R.A. No. 4850 to carry out the development of the LagunaLakeregion with due regard and adequate provisions for environmental management and control, preservation of the quality of human life and ecological systems, and prevention of undue ecological disturbances, deterioration, and pollution.[50]
The LLDA was granted the power to pass upon and approve or disapprove all plans, programs, and projects proposed by the local government offices/agencies within their regions, by public corporations, and by private persons or enterprises, where such plans, programs and/or projects are related to those of the Authority for the development of the region, as well as to issue the necessary clearance for the approved plans, programs and/or projects.[51]
Thus, in LLDA Resolution No. 41, Series of 1997, the LLDA specified the development activities, projects, and installations required to secure a clearance from the LLDA before these can be constructed, operated, maintained, expanded, modified, or implemented by any government office/agency or government corporation or private person or enterprise.[52] Section 2 of the LLDA Resolution then set out the activities exempted from complying with the clearance requirement, to wit:
Section 2. Exemptions. The following activities, projects, [or] installations are exempted from the above subject requirements:
x x x x
30. Cottage industries including
– stuffed toys manufacturing
– handicrafts and
– rattan/furniture manufacturing.
Contrary to the CA’s pronouncement and to respondents’ claim, the provision did not restrict the exemption to the three activities therein mentioned.
The word include means “to take in or comprise as a part of a whole.”[53]
Thus, this Court has previously held that it necessarily conveys the very idea of non-exclusivity of the enumeration.[54] The principle of expressio unius est exclusio alterius does not apply where other circumstances indicate that the enumeration was not intended to be exclusive, or where the enumeration is by way of example only.[55] The maxim expressio unius est exclusio alterius does not apply when words are mentioned by way of example.[56] Said legal maxim should be applied only as a means of discovering legislative intent which is not otherwise manifest.[57]
In another case, the Court said:
[T]he word “involving,” when understood in the sense of “including,” as in including technical or financial assistance, necessarily implies that there are activities other than those that are being included. In other words, if an agreement includes technical or financial assistance, there is [–] apart from such assistance – something else already in[,] and covered or may be covered by, the said agreement.[58]
As the regulation stands, therefore, all cottage industries including, but not limited to, those enumerated therein are exempted from securing prior clearance from the LLDA. Hence, the CA erred in ruling that only the three activities enumerated therein are exempted.
http://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/jurisprudence/2011/march2011/171427.htm
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