SCRA vs G.R.

In a previous iteration as a law student, I had professors who would assign  at least ten cases for the next evening's class. I would always ask blessings for  those who would assign their cases with the corresponding G.R. numbers. Of special mention would be Prof. Renato M. Galeon, my sensei in Constitutional Law 2.

The others would only cite SCRA numbers. Or if the cases are old ones, they will send you to xxPhilxx. Imagine your frustration when at the next meeting of the class you'd find out you got the wrong case because you only relied on Lawphil, Chan-Robles, or even the Supreme Court site.

Of course,  you can wade through the cases listed until you get the right one. But reading each case will take me 5 minutes or so. What if 5 cases are listed? And you still have 9 more cases to find? It would already be past 12 midnight in my case before I can go to bed. Now what if two other professors the next day are not like Prof. Galeon? I lost a few pounds in my last incarnation.

I can understand if Ruben Balane uses only SCRA numbers in his book Jottings and Jurisprudence in Civil Law (Succession). Or Ernesto L. Pineda in his book Judicial Ethics. Or the other authors in my bookshelf such as Justice Cruz. Their books are published by Central Books which also publishes the SCRA.

In his 3 massive volumes (see one here)  published by National Bookstore, Florenz D. Regalado uses only the GR numbers most probably because his publisher is a competitor of Central Books. Bless be Prof. Regalado for making my life easier.

What frustrates me is when the books I buy from Rex Publishing also reliesy heavily on SCRA.  Here's this book by Villanueva:

It will be my textbook in Corporation Law this 2nd sem. It uses SCRA all throughout except in 4 cases. I had the same complaint about his book Law on Sales which I used last year.

De Leon and Riano, other Rex authors, also prefer SCRA to GRs.