Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
html
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Being a signatory to the Vienna convention, the code also becomes part of our laws.
Thus, the state presents a strong constitutional and legal basis to uphold the validity of the controversial
LTO regulation.
Aside from this, the state anchors its position on the time-honored principle that laws are presumptively
constitutional.
On the other end of the spectrum, is the competing interest enshrined in the bill of rights: The peoples
right to due process of law.
Police power is not unlimited
Our democratic society recognizes the state's inherent police power.
Police power, however, may not be done arbitrarily or unreasonably and could be set aside if it is either
capricious, discriminatory, whimsical, arbitrary, unjust or is tantamount to a denial of due process and
equal protection clauses of our constitution.
The concept of due process
Due process of law has two aspects: substantive and procedural due process.
In order that a particular act may not be impugned as violative of the due process clause, there must be
compliance with both substantive and the procedural requirements thereof.
Substantive due process refers to the intrinsic validity of a law that interferes with the rights of a person
to his property.
Substantive due process "requires that the law itself, not merely the procedures by which the law would
be enforced, is fair, reasonable, and just."
On the other hand, procedural due process means compliance with the procedures or steps, even
periods, prescribed by the statute, in conformity with the standard of fair play and without arbitrariness
on the part of those who are called upon to administer it. Procedural due process "refers to the method
or manner by which the law is enforced,"
I remember Fr. Joaquin G. Bernas shorten the entire discussion of the due process concept, in two
simple questions: Is the law valid (fair, reasonable just)? Are the means reasonable?
The people against the LTO regulation attack the substantive parts of the issuance. Are the provisions
of the regulation fair, reasonable and just so as to enable the law to pass the tests of constitutional
validity?
Ultra vires
The LTO regulation is attacked for being "ultra vires".
Ultra vires means going beyond what the law which the LTO regulation seeks to enforce.
The helmet provision
Take for instance, the helmet provision.
The assailed LTO regulation requires the use of helmets, under pain of punishment.
If the LTO regulation merely enforces the law, what law requires the use of helmets?