FELIX MARQUEZ, PETITIONER, VS. THE BOARD OF MEDICAL EXAMINERS AND THE SECRETARY-TREASURER OF THE BOARD OF MEDICAL EXAMINERS, RESPONDENTS.

This is an original proceeding in this court by which
the petitioner, Felix Marquez, seeks to obtain a writ of
mandamus against the respondents, the Board of Medical
Examiners and the Secretary-Treasurer of the Board of
Medical Examiners, requiring them to admit the petitioner
to the physicians’ examinations conducted, or to be conducted by the respondents in the City of Manila. To the
original complaint the respondents answered, and to the
answer a demurrer was interposed in behalf of the
petitioner.

It appears that the petitioner is a graduate of the Chicago Medical
College, having received the degree of M.D. from said institution on
June 8 of the year 1922. No question appears to have been made by the
respondents with respect to the petitioner’s qualifications for the
physicians’ examinations in other respects, but they have denied him
admission to the examinations on the ground that the Chicago Medical
College, where the petitioner was graduated, has been classified as a
Class C medical college by the National Medical State Board of the
United States. For this reason the respondents, in accordance with the
regulations of the board now in effect, have denied the requisite
standing to said institution and excluded the petitioner.

It is not denied by the respondents that prior to the
adoption of the present regulations, and prior to the date
when the Chicago Medical School was classified as a Class
C medical college, the Board of Medical Examiners for the
Philippine Islands had accepted diplomas of graduation
from said medical college as sufficient proof of proficiency
in medical knowledge to admit a graduate to the examinations held in these Islands; and as late as October 29,
1923, said board acted favorably upon the application of
one Dr. Mariano M. Lazatin, who was graduated from said
school in the year 1921. At the time said candidate was
admitted, however, the regulations denying the requisite
status to the Chicago Medical College had not been made
effective, and they had been made effective by proper
authority before the present petitioner had submitted his
application.

In the argument for the petitioner it is admitted that under Act No.
3111, and the regulations now in force, the petitioner is disqualified
to take the examinations; but it is pointed out that at the time he
began and even when he concluded his course in the Chicago Medical
School, said institution was still recognized as a reputable medical
institution; and the question submitted is whether the petitioner’s
case should be governed by the law and regulations in force at the time
of his enrollment in and graduation from the Chicago Medical School, or
by those in force at the time he filed his application for admission,
on or about September 26, 1924. It is submitted for the petitioner that
his case should be governed by the law and regulations at the time of
his graduation. To hold otherwise, it is insisted, is to make the law
retroactive in effect and to do irreparable damage to the petitioner,
who has pursued his work in the institution referred to in good faith,
believing that said school had the status necessary to qualify him for
examination.

The position
taken by the petitioner is, we think, untenable. The question whether a
medical institution is “a reputable medical school,” in the sense
intended by the law, is vested in the Board of Medical Examiners, and
although the action taken by them may conceivably, in isolated cases,
result in hardship, nevertheless the interests of the public require
that the board should be free to exercise its judgment and discretion
without reference to the effect of the determination of the question in
particular instances. There can in the nature of things be no vested
right in an existing law, which would preclude its change or repeal. No
one who has commenced preparation in a particular institution has any
inchoate right on account of that fact. If the law were otherwise upon
this point, it would be impossible for the Board of Medical Examiners
to give effect to the knowledge which they from time to time acquire as
to the standing of medical schools; and an intending physician, upon
matriculating in a particular college, takes upon himself the risk of
changes that may be made in the standing of the institution by the
board.

The demurrer to the answer is not well taken. The
answer is therefore declared sufficient, and the petition
dismissed, with costs. So ordered.

Avanceña, C. J., Johnson, Malcolm, Villamor, Johns, and Villa-Real, JJ., concur.