CASE NO.

200
ARTICLE VI, SEC. 5: COMPOSITION OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
RULES ON APPORTIONMENT (3)
Navarro v. Ermita

FACTS:
On October 2, 2006, the President of the Republic approved into law Republic Act No. 9355, An
Act Creating the Province of Dinagat Islands. On December 3, 2006, the COMELEC conducted
the mandatory plebiscite for the ratification of the creation of the province under the Local
Government Code. The plebiscite yielded 69,943 affirmative votes and 63,502 negative votes.
With the approval of the people from both the mother province of Surigao del Norte and the
Province of Dinagat Islands, Dinagat Islands was created into a separate and distinct province.
On November 10, 2006, petitioners Navarro and other former political leaders of Surigao del
Norte filed before the Supreme Court a petition for certiorari and prohibition challenging the
constitutionality of RA 9355. They pointed out that when the law was passed, Dinagat had a
land area of only 802.12 square kilometers and a population of only 106,951, failing to comply
with Section 10, Article X of the 1987 Constitution and of Section 461 of the Local Government
Code.

ISSUE:
Whether RA 9355 is constitutional.

RULING:
February 2010 ruling – No. RA 9355 is unconstitutional for its non-compliance of land and
population requirements as prescribed in the Constitution. It also constitutes an act of
gerrymandering, defined as the formation of one legislative district out of separate territories for
the purpose of favoring a candidate or a party. Such is not allowed because the Constitution
mandates each legislative district to comprise, as far as practicable, a contiguous, compact and
adjacent territory.

April 2011 ruling – Yes. The SC granted an urgent motion to recall entry of judgment upholding
that RA 9355 is constitutional for reasons of economic viability. It must be borne in mind that the
central policy considerations in the creation of local government units are economic viability,
efficient administration, and capability to deliver basic services to their constituents. The criteria
prescribed by the LGC, i.e., income, population and land area, are all designed to accomplish
these results. In this light, Congress, in its collective wisdom, has debated on the relative weight
of each of these three criteria, placing emphasis on which of them should enjoy preferential
consideration. Without doubt, the primordial criterion in the creation of local government units,
particularly of a province, is economic viability. This is the clear intent of the framers of the LGC.
For as long as there is compliance with the income requirement, the legislative intent, is after all,
to the effect that the land area and population requirements may be overridden by the
established economic viability of the proposed province.

MAIN POINT:
The Congress, recognizing the capacity and viability of Dinagat to become a full-fledged
province, enacted RA 9355, following the exemption from the land area requirement, which, with
respect to the creation of provinces, can only be found as an express provision in the LGC-IRR.
In effect, pursuant to its plenary legislative powers, Congress breathed flesh and blood into that
exemption in Article 9 (2) of the LGC-IRR and transformed it into law when it enacted RA 9355
creating the Province of Dinagat Islands.