Political and Public International Law › Law on Public Officers

A. General Principles

Rule on Raising at the Earliest Opportunity

General Rule: The earliest opportunity to raise a constitutional issue is to raise it in the pleadings before a competent court that can resolve the same. (Matibag v. Benipayo, G.R. No. 149036, April 2, 2002)

Equality vs. Uniformity

Equality	Uniformity
The burden of the tax falls equally and impartially upon all the persons and property subject to it.	The principle by which all taxable articles or kinds of property of the same class shall be taxed at the same rate. A tax is uniform when it operates with the same force and effect in every place where the subject of it is found. It does not signify an intrinsic but simply a geographical uniformity.

[Churchill v. Concepcion, GR No. 11572 (1916)]