COLLECTOR OF INTERNAL REVENUE, PETITIONER, VS. TOTOY OTEYZA, ET. AL., RESPONDENTS.

This is a petition for the review of the decision of the
Court of Tax Appeals exempting the respondent, Totoy Oteyza, from the payment of
amusement taxes including surcharge and penalties prescribed in Section 260, in
connection with Section 558, of the National Internal Revenue Code. Said court
held that the ballet performances sponsored by respondent Oteyza came within the
following provisions of Republic Act No. 728:

“SECTION 1. The holding of operas, concerts, recitals, dramas, painting and
art exhibition, and literary, oratorical or musical programs, except film
exhibitions and radio or phonographic records thereof, shall be exempt from the
payment of any national or municipal amusement tax on the receipts
therefrom.”

The petitioner maintains that ballet performance is not expressly exempted
from the payment of the amusement tax and, under the principle of “expresio
unius est exclusio alterius“, the enumeration in Republic Act No. 732 should be
considered exclusive.

Ballet means a theatrical dance; specially a pantominic dance executed ay a
group, especially women; a kind of artistic dancing, marked by a great variety,
intricacy, and expressiveness in its movements. (Webster’s International
Dictionary.) When used without any qualifying adjective or phrase, the term is
frequently used to signify art in its higher manifestations, or art par
excellence, as it is represented in works of art by those who are distinctively
denominated artists. (5 Corpus Juris, p. 568.)

It is conceded that ballet is an art; that under our Constitution (Art. XIV,
Sec. 4) arts are under the patronage of the State; that Republic Act No. 722
seeks te implement the constitutional provision. Miss Jovita Fuentes, whose
qualification as an expert witness was admitted by counsel for the petitioner,
testified that “recital”includes violin, piano, songs and ballet, and that
“concert” includes symphony ana ballet. Mrs. Trinidad Fernandez-Legarda, another
expert witness, in effect testified that an opera, concert or recital refers to
a group of people interpreting a story and employing, for instance, a ballet
presentation with orchestral accompaniment as the medium of expression or
interpretation.

The conclusion is thus inevitable that ballet performance, besides being
truly an art, an art par excellence is in fact included in the terms “concert”,
“opera” or “recital” and therefore exempted from the payment of the amusement
tax.

Wherefore, the appealed decision is hereby affirmed without costs.
So ordered.

Bengzon, Montemayor, Reyes, A., Bautista Angelo, Labrador,
Concepcion, Reyes, J.B.L., Endencia, and Felix, JJ., concur.