G.R. No. 89572 – 259 Phil. 1016 – 180 SCRA 533 – Political Law – Powers of the State – Police Power – Requisites of Police Power – Lawful Subject and Lawful Method – State May Regulate Exercise of Professions
Roberto Rey San Diego was a graduate of BS Zoology. He wanted to enroll in medical school but first he needed to pass the National Medical Admission test (NMAT). He failed it thrice. He wanted to take it again but the Department of Education (DECS) has a rule that those who failed the NMAT thrice are no longer allowed to take it a fourth time. San Diego filed a mandamus case before the regional trial court of Manila to compel the DECS to allow him to take the NMAT again. The trial court agreed with San Diego. It ruled that San Diego had been deprived of his right to pursue a medical education through an arbitrary exercise of the police power.
ISSUE: Whether or not the rule barring three-time-flunkers to take the NMAT a fourth time is a valid exercise of police power.
HELD: Yes. The RTC is not correct. The State has a right to regulate who must be admitted in medical schools in order to ensure quality medical services.
The SC also emphasized that the proper exercise of the police power requires the concurrence of a lawful subject and a lawful method:
Lawful Subject: Regulating the medical profession certainly within the ambit of the police power. It is the right and responsibility of the State to insure that the medical profession is not infiltrated by incompetents to whom patients may unwarily entrust their lives and health.
Lawful Method: The implementation of the three-time-flunker rule is not irrelevant to the purpose of the law nor is it arbitrary or oppressive. The three-flunk rule is intended to insulate the medical schools and ultimately the medical profession from the intrusion of those not qualified to be doctors.
While every person is entitled to aspire to be a doctor, he does not have a constitutional right to be a doctor. This is true of any other calling in which the public interest is involved; and the closer the link, the longer the bridge to one’s ambition. The State has the responsibility to harness its human resources and to see to it that they are not dissipated or, no less worse, not used at all. These resources must be applied in a manner that will best promote the common good while also giving the individual a sense of satisfaction.
