Petitioners Paulino  Ochoa,  et al.,  are admittedly  bona fide  pork vendors and  stall  holders in the public market of Pasay  City.  They  were, and  are being,  required to pay, for  their swines or hogs slaughtered  in the public abattoir of Pasay, the fee of P0.05 per  kilo  prescribed, for the  slaughtering  "of large cattle", in  Ordinance No. 3, series.of 1945 of said City.   Section 1 of said ordinance provides:

"That all owners or incharge of every  large cattle slaughtered within  the  Public  Slaughterhouse  must pay the slaughter  fee of five  (P0.05) centavos per kilo of the parts of the carcass originally taxed by existing laws and ordinances."

Contending  that the  phrase  "large  cattle"  as  used in this ordinance does not  include swine or  hogs,  petitioners instituted this case in  the  Court of First Instance of Rizal for  a  declaratory judgment  to the  effect that the application of said ordinance to swine  is  "erroneous and  illegal and should be  ordered * * * stopped  immediately."  The answer filed by respondents, Mayor and Treasurer of Pasay City, having merely raised the  question  of law, whether hogs or swines are included within the  purview of  the  words  "large cattle" used in said ordinance, on motion of the petitioners, not  objected  to by the  respondents, said court rendered a  judgment  on the pleadings, resolving said question in the negative and declaring the aforementioned ordinance "inapplicable and without  force and  effect insofar  as swine or hogs that may hereafter be slaughtered by the petitioners within the slaughterhouse of Pasay City."

Petitioners have  appealed  from said decision, upon the ground that it should not confine  its effects to swine  or hogs "hereafter" slaughtered  by  them.  This  limitation is, indeed,  untenable.  If, as  the lower court had correctly held,  the term  'large  cattle'  used  in  section  1 of Ordinance No. 3,  series.of 1945, of Pasay City,, does not  include * *  *  hogs or  swine,"  it follows  that  this enactment is, inapplicable to any  and  all hogs or swine slaughtered in the  public abattoir of Pasay City during the  effectivity of said local legislation, either  before  or after the final disposition of the case at bar.

Wherefore, modified in the  sense that swine or hogs slaughtered in  said  public  abattoir,  at any time  after the  passage  of  the ordinance  above referred  to, are not subject to the provisions thereof,  the  decision appealed from  is  hereby affirmed, in all  other respects, without special pronouncements as to costs.  It is  so  ordered.

Paras, C. J., Bengzon, Padilla, Montemayor, Bautista Angelo, Reyes, J, B. L., Endencia and Felix,  JJ., concur.