AQUINO VS COMELEC

Political Law De Jure vs De Facto Government

On January 21, 1975, a petition for prohibition was filed to seek the nullification of some Presidential Decrees. The first ground upon which the petition is predicated states that Marcos does not hold any legal office nor possess any lawful authority under either the 1935 Constitution or the 1973 Constitution and therefore has no authority to issue the questioned proclamations, decrees and orders. This challenges the title of the incumbent President to the office of the Presidency and therefore is in the nature of a quo warranto proceedings, the appropriate action by which the title of a public officer can be questioned before the courts. Only the Solicitor General or the person who asserts title to the same office can legally file such a quo warranto petition. The petitioners, however, do not claim such right to the office and not one of them is the incumbent Solicitor General.

ISSUE: Whether or not the Marcos government is a lawful government.

HELD: First of, petitioners do not have the personality to file suit. On the issue at bar, the SC affirmed the validity of Martial Law Proclamation No. 1081 issued on September 22, 1972 by President Marcos because there was no arbitrariness in the issuance of said proclamation pursuant to the 1935 Constitution; that the factual bases had not disappeared but had even been exacerbated; that the question as to the validity of the Martial Law proclamation has been foreclosed by Section 3(2) of Article XVII of the 1973 Constitution. Under the (1973) Constitution, the President, if he so desires; can continue in office beyond 1973. While his term of office under the 1935 Constitution should have terminated on December 30, 1973, by the general referendum of July 27-28, 1973, the sovereign people expressly authorized him to continue in office even beyond 1973 under the 1973 Constitution (which was validly ratified on January 17, 1973 by the sovereign people) in order to finish the reforms he initiated under Martial Law; and as aforestated, as this was the decision of the people, in whom sovereignty resides . . . and all government authority emanates . . ., it is therefore beyond the scope of judicial inquiry. The logical consequence therefore is that President Marcos is a de jure President of the Republic of the Philippines.