RECOLETOS NOTES

CENTRALIZED BAR OPERATIONS 2006

Political Law

SEPARATION OF POWERS Ordinarily, before a member of Congress may properly challenge the validity of an official act of any department of the government there must be an unmistakable showing that the challenged official act affects or impairs his rights and prerogatives as legislator. (Jaworski vs. Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation, 419 SCRA 317 [2004]) LEGISLATIVE FRANCHISE A legislative franchise is a special privilege granted by the state to corporations. The special privileges and franchises received are subject to the laws of the State and the limitations of its charter. (Jaworski vs. Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation, 419 SCRA 317 [2004]) JUDICIAL REVIEW The Supreme Court can exercise its power of judicial review only if the following requisites are present: (1) The existence of an actual and appropriate case; (2) A personal and substantial interest of the party raising the Constitutional question; (3) The exercise of judicial review is pleaded at the earliest opportunity; and (4) The constitutional question is the lis mota of the case. (La Bugal-BLaan Tribal Association, Inc. vs. Ramos, 421 SCRA 148 [2004]) As the case involves constitutional questions, the Supreme Court is not concerned with whether petitioners are real parties in interest, but with whether they have legal standing. (La Bugal-BLaan Tribal Association, Inc. vs. Ramos, 421 SCRA 148 [2004]) The third requisite for judicial review should not be taken to mean that the question of constitutionality must be raised immediately after the execution of the state action complained of-that the question of constitutionality has not been raised before is not a valid reason for refusing to allow it to be raised later. (La Bugal-BLaan Tribal Association, Inc. vs. Ramos, 421 SCRA 148 [2004]) LOCUS STANDI Petitioners legal standing recognized following the liberal policy of the Supreme Court whenever a case involves an issue of overarching significance to our society. (Information Technology Foundation of the Philippines vs. Commission on Elections, 419 SCRA 141 [2004]) JUDICIAL POWER Judicial power, however large, has an orbit or less strictly defined by wellorganized presuppositions regarding the kind of business that properly belongs to courts. (Information Technology Foundation of the Philippines vs. Commission on Elections, 419 SCRA 141 [2004])
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Ponente: Justice PUNO ANTI PLUNDER LAW The Supreme Court has declared the anti-plunder law constitutional for being neither vague nor ambiguous on the thesis that the terms series and combination are not unsusceptible to firm understanding.(Estrada vs. Sandiganbayan, 377 SCRA 538 [2002]) Ponente: Justice PUNO There can be no substantial or material change to the parameters of the project, including the essential terms and conditions of the contract bidden upon, after the contract award. (Agan, Jr. vs. Philippine International Air Terminals, Co., Inc., 420 SCRA 575 [2004]) The Republic Act No. 7718 (BOT Law) and its implementing rules provide that there are three (3) essential requisites for an unsolicited proposal to be accepted. (Agan, Jr. vs. Philippine International Air Terminals, Co., Inc., 420 SCRA 575 [2004]) POLITICAL QUESTIONS On political questions, the Supreme Court may err but the sovereign people will notto be sure, the Constitution did not grant to the unelected members of the Supreme Court, the right to elect in behalf of the people. (Tecson vs. Commission on Elections, 424 SCRA 277 [2004]) REGALIAN DOCTRINE The first sentence of Section 2 embodies the Regalian doctrine or jura regalia. Introduced by Spain into these Islands, this feudal concept is based on the States power of dominium, which is the capacity of the State to own or acquire property. (La Bugal-BLaan Tribal Association, Inc. vs. Ramos, 421 SCRA 148 [2004]) The Regalian doctrine extends not only to land but also to all natural wealth that may be found in the bowels of the earth. (La Bugal-BLaan Tribal Association, Inc. vs. Ramos, 421 SCRA 148 [2004])

THE AMERICAN OCCUPATION AND THE CONCESSION REGIME Unlike Spain, the United States considered natural resources as a source of wealth for its nationals and saw fit to allow both Filipino and American citizens to explore and exploit minerals in public lands, and to grant patents to private mineral lands. The Regalian doctrine and the American system, therefore, differ in one essential respect. Under the Regalian theory, mineral
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rights are not included in a grant of land by the state; under the American doctrine, mineral rights are included in a grant of land by the government. (La Bugal-BLaan Tribal Association, Inc. vs. Ramos, 421 SCRA 148 [2004])

Under the concession system, the concessionaire makes a direct equity investment for the purpose of exploiting a particular natural resource within a given area. Thus, the concession amounts to complete control by the concessionaire over the countrys natural resource, for it is given exclusive and plenary rights to exploit a particular resource at the point of extraction. (La Bugal-BLaan Tribal Association, Inc. vs. Ramos, 421 SCRA 148 [2004])

THE 1935 CONSTITUTION AND THE NATIONALIZATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES As adopted in a republican system, the medieval concept of jura regalia is stripped of royal overtones and ownership of the land is vested in the State. (La Bugal-BLaan Tribal Association, Inc. vs. Ramos, 421 SCRA 148 [2004]) The nationalization and conservation of the natural resources of the country was one of the fixed and dominating objectives of the 1935 Constitutional Convention. (La Bugal-BLaan Tribal Association, Inc. vs. Ramos, 421 SCRA 148 [2004]) The swell of nationalism that suffused the 1935 Constitution was radically diluted when on November 1946, the Parity Amendment, which came in the form of an Ordinance Appended to the Constitution, was ratified in a plebiscite. (La Bugal-BLaan Tribal Association, Inc. vs. Ramos, 421 SCRA 148 [2004]) PRESIDENTIAL DECREE NO. 87, THE 1973 CONSTITUTION AND THE SERVICE CONTRACT SYSTEM The promulgation on December 31, 1972 of Presidential Decree No. 87, otherwise known as THE OIL EXPLORATION AND DEVELOPMENT ACT OF 1972 signaled such a transformation. P.D. No. 87 permitted the government to explore for and produce indigenous petroleum through service contracts. (La Bugal-BLaan Tribal Association, Inc. vs. Ramos, 421 SCRA 148 [2004]) While Section 9, Article XIV of the 1973 Constitution maintained the Filipinoonly policy in the enjoyment of natural resources, it also allowed Filipinos, upon authority of the Batasang Pambansa, to enter into service contracts with any person or entity for the exploration or utilization of natural resources. (La Bugal-BLaan Tribal Association, Inc. vs. Ramos, 421 SCRA 148 [2004])

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THE 1987 CONSTITUTION AND TECHNICAL OR FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE AGREEMENTS Conspicuously absent in Section 2, Article XII of the 1987 Constitution is the provision in the 1935 and 1973 Constitutions authorizing the State to grant licenses, concessions, or leases for the exploration, exploitation, development, or utilization of natural resources. By such omission, the utilization of inalienable lands of public domain through license, concession or lease is no longer allowed under the 1987 Constitution. (La Bugal-BLaan Tribal Association, Inc. vs. Ramos, 421 SCRA 148 [2004]) Under the 1987 Constitution, the State itself may undertake the operation of a concession or enter into joint ventures. (La Bugal-BLaan Tribal Association, Inc. vs. Ramos, 421 SCRA 148 [2004]) While the 1973 Constitution referred to service contracts for financial, technical, management, or other forms of assistance the 1987 Constitution provides for agreements. . . involving either financial or technical assistance. It bears noting that the phrases service contracts and management or other forms of assistance in the earlier constitution have been omitted. (La Bugal-BLaan Tribal Association, Inc. vs. Ramos, 421 SCRA 148 [2004]) The State, being the owner of the natural resources, is accorded the primary power and responsibility in the exploration, development and utilization thereof. (La Bugal-BLaan Tribal Association, Inc. vs. Ramos, 421 SCRA 148 [2004])

THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF THE WMCP FTAA The insights of the proponents of the U.P. Law draft are, therefore, instructive in interpreting the phrase technical or financial assistance. (La Bugal-BLaan Tribal Association, Inc. vs. Ramos, 421 SCRA 148 [2004]) The U.P. Law draft proponents viewed service contracts under the 1973 Constitution as grants of beneficial ownership of the countrys natural resources to foreign owned corporations. (La Bugal-BLaan Tribal Association, Inc. vs. Ramos, 421 SCRA 148 [2004]) The replacement of service contracts with agreements involving either technical or financial assistance, as well as the deletion of the phrase management or other forms of assistance, assumes greater significance

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when note is taken that the U.P. Law draft proposed other equally crucial changes that were obviously heeded by the CONCOM. (La Bugal-BLaan Tribal Association, Inc. vs. Ramos, 421 SCRA 148 [2004]) In light of the deliberations of the CONCOM, the text of the Constitution, and the adoption of other proposed changes, there is no doubt that the framers considered and shared the intent of the U.P. Law proponents in employing the phrase agreements . . . involving either technical or financial assistance. (La Bugal-BLaan Tribal Association, Inc. vs. Ramos, 421 SCRA 148 [2004]) Loose statements of some of the Commissioners in the CONCOM do not necessarily translate to the adoption of the 1973 Constitution provision allowing service contracts. (La Bugal-BLaan Tribal Association, Inc. vs. Ramos, 421 SCRA 148 [2004]) When an administrative or executive agency renders an opinion or issues a statement of policy, it merely interprets a pre-existing law; and the administrative interpretation of the law is at best advisory, for it is the courts that finally determine what the law means. (La Bugal-BLaan Tribal Association, Inc. vs. Ramos, 421 SCRA 148 [2004]) The President may enter into Financial and Technical Assistance Agreement (FTAA) with foreign-owned corporations in the exploitation of our natural resources. (La Bugal-BLaan Tribal Association, Inc. vs. Ramos, 421 SCRA 148 [2004]) The Supreme Court finds that R.A. No. 7942 (Philippine Mining Act of 1995) is invalid insofar as said Act authorizes service contracts. (La Bugal-BLaan Tribal Association, Inc. vs. Ramos, 421 SCRA 148 [2004]) The underlying assumption in all these provisions is that the foreign contractor manages the mineral resources, just like the foreign contractor in a service contract. By allowing foreign contractors to manage or operate all the aspects of the mining operation, the above-cited provisions of R.A. No. 7942 have in effect conveyed beneficial ownership over the nations mineral resources to these contractors, leaving the State with nothing but bare title thereto. (La Bugal-BLaan Tribal Association, Inc. vs. Ramos, 421 SCRA 148 [2004]) Provisions of R.A. No. 7942 are violative of Section 2, Article XII of the Constitution. (La Bugal-BLaan Tribal Association, Inc. vs. Ramos, 421 SCRA 148 [2004]) When the parts of the statute are so mutually dependent and connected as conditions, considerations, inducements, or compensations for each other, as to warrant a belief that the legislature intended them as a whole, and that if all could not be carried into effect, the legislature would not pass the residue

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independently, then, if some parts are unconstitutional, all the provisions which are thus dependent, conditional, or connected, must fall with them. (La Bugal-BLaan Tribal Association, Inc. vs. Ramos, 421 SCRA 148 [2004]) The annulment of the FTAA would not constitute a breach of the Agreement on the Promotion and Protection of Investments between the Philippine and Australian Governments, for the decision herein invalidating FTAA forms part of the legal system of the Philippines, and the equal protection clause guarantees that such decision shall apply to all contracts belonging to the same class, hence, upholding rather than violating, the fair and equitable treatment stipulation in said treaty. (La Bugal-BLaan Tribal Association, Inc. vs. Ramos, 421 SCRA 148 [2004]) FUNDAMENTAL POWERS OF STATE POLICE POWER When the government temporarily takes over a business affected with public interest pursuant to Article XII, Section 17 of the Constitution, it is not required to compensate the private entity-owner of the said business as there is no transfer of ownership, whether permanent or temporary, and the private entity-owner affected by the temporary takeover cannot, likewise, claim just compensation for the use of the said business and it properties as the temporary takeover by the government is in exercise of its power of eminent domain. (Agan, Jr. vs. Philippine International Air Terminals Co., Inc. 402 SCRA 612 [2003]) Article XII, Section 17 of the 1987 Constitution envisions a situation wherein the exigencies of the times necessitate the government to temporarily take over or direct the operation of any privately owned public utility or business affected with public interest; Clearly, the State in effecting the temporary takeover is exercising its police power and its exercise therefore must not be unreasonably hampered nor its exercise be a source of obligation by the government in the absence of damage due to arbitrariness of its exercise, and requiring the government to pay reasonable compensation for the reasonable use of the property pursuant to the operation of the business contravenes the Constitution. (Agan, Jr. vs. Philippine International Air Terminals Co., Inc. 402 SCRA 612 [2003]) Police power is exercised without provision for just compensation for its paramount consideration is public welfare. Police power can not be diminished by any contract. (Agan, Jr. vs. Philippine International Air Terminals, Co., Inc., 420 SCRA 575 [2004]) EQUAL PROTECTION CLAUSE Equal protection simply means that all persons and things similarly situated must be treated alike both as to the rights conferred and the liabilities

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imposed. (Dimaporo vs. House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal, 426 SCRA 226 [2004]) Ponente: Justice PUNO BAIL; CAPITAL OFFENSES The constitutional mandate makes the grant or denial of bail in capital offenses hinge on the issue of whether or not the evidence of guilt of the accused is strong. This requires that the trial court conduct bail hearings wherein both the prosecution and the defense are afforded sufficient opportunity to present their respective evidence. The burden of proof lies with the prosecution to show strong evidence of guilt. ( Estrada vs. Sandiganbayan, 377 SCRA 538 [2002]) RIGHT TO RUN FOR PUBLIC OFFICE The right to run for public office includes the right to equal chance to competeany failure to equalize the chances of all candidates is to insure the defect of the disfavored. (Tecson vs. Commission on Elections, 424 SCRA 277 [2004]) RIGHT TO ELECT The Constitution does not allow the intervention of the Supreme Court to intrude into the right of the voters to elect by direct vote the President by removing Fernando Poe, Jr. from among those whom they may vote for President, thereby constricting or limiting the candidates, and consequently, the right of the people to vote (or not to vote) for FPJ. (Tecson vs. Commission on Elections, 424 SCRA 277 [2004]) Intrusion into a campaign for President, and worse, in the right of the people to choose their candidate, is an intrusion into their vested right to elect by direct vote the President. (Tecson vs. Commission on Elections, 424 SCRA 277 [2004]) PRINCIPLE OF JUS SANGUINIS; 1935 CONSTITUTION The 1935 Constitution brought to an end to any such link to the common law principle of jus soli by adopting, once and for all, jus sanguinis or blood relationship as the basis of Filipino citizenship. (Tecson vs. Commission on Elections, 424 SCRA 277 [2004]) PRINCIPLE OF JUS SANGUINIS; 1973 AND 1987 CONSTITUTION Seeking to correct the anomaly of women automatically losing their Filipino citizenship and acquiring that of their foreign husbands, resulting in discriminatory situations that effectively incapacitated the women from transmitting their Filipino citizenship to their legitimate children and requiring such children to still elect Filipino citizenship upon reaching the age

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of majority, as well as fully cognizant of the newly found status of Filipino women as equals to men, the framers of the 1973 Constitution crafted the provisions of the new Constitution on citizenship to reflect such concerns. (Tecson vs. Commission on Elections, 424 SCRA 277 [2004]) LEGITIMATE AND ILLEGITIMATE CHILDREN Where jurisprudence regarded an illegitimate child as taking after the citizenship of its mother, it did so for the benefit the child. Providing neither conditions nor distinctions, the Constitution states that among the citizens of the Philippines are those whose fathers are citizens of the Philippines. (Tecson vs. Commission on Elections, 424 SCRA 277 [2004]) The 1935 Constitution, during which regime respondent FPJ has seen first light, confers citizenship to all persons whose fathers are Filipino citizens regardless of whether such children are legitimate or illegitimate. (Tecson vs. Commission on Elections, 424 SCRA 277 [2004]) As section 3, Article IV of the 1935 Constitution does not distinguish between a legitimate child and an illegitimate child of a Filipino father, we should not make a distinction. (Tecson vs. Commission on Elections, 424 SCRA 277 [2004]) CITIZENSHIP; JUS SANGUINIS Proof that Allan F. Poe, a Filipino citizen, is the father of Fernando Poe, Jr. is proof that the blood of Allan F. Poe flows in the veins of FPJno other proof is required for the principle of jus sanguinis to apply, no need for other proofs such as proofs of acknowledgment, for such proofs are only used in civil law for the purpose of establishing legitimation of illegitimate children. (Tecson vs. Commission on Elections, 424 SCRA 277 [2004]) In the Philippines, citizenship is essential not only for the exercise of political rights and the right to hold public office, but for the exercise of a number of important economic privileges which the Constitution reserves exclusively to Philippine citizens as well. (Tecson vs. Commission on Elections, 424 SCRA 277 [2004]) THE EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT Resignation xxx is a factual question and its elements are beyond quibble; there must be intent to resign and the intent must be coupled by acts of relinquishment. The validity of a resignation is not governed by any formal requirement as to form. It can be oral. It can be written. It can be express. It can be applied. As long as the resignation is clear, it must be given legal effect. In the cases at bar, the facts show that petitioner did not write any formal letter of resignation before he evacuated Malacanang Palace in the afternoon of January 20, 2001 after the oath taking of respondent Arroyo. Consequently, whether or not petitioner resigned has to be determined from his acts or omissions before, during and after January 20,2001 or by the

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totality of prior, contemporaneous and posterior facts and circumstantial evidence bearing a material relevance on the issue. Using the totality test, we hold that petitioner resigned as President. In sum, we hold that the resignation of the petitioner cannot be doubted. It was confirmed by his leaving Malacanang. In the press release containing his final statement, (1) he acknowledged the oath-taking of the respondent as President of the Republic albeit with reservation about its legality; (2) he emphasized he was leaving the Palace, the seat of the presidency, for the sake of peace and in order to begin the healing process of our nation. He did not say he was leaving the Palace due to any kind of inability and that he was going to reassume the presidency as soon as the disability disappears; (3) he expressed his gratitude to the people for the opportunity to serve them. Without doubt, he was referring to the past opportunity given him to serve the people as President; (4) he assured that he will not shirk from any future challenge that may come ahead on the same service of our country. Petitioners reference is to a future challenge after occupying the office of the president which he has given up; and (5) he called on his supporters to join him in the promotion of a constructive national spirit of reconciliation and solidarity. Certainly, the national spirit of reconciliation and solidarity could not be attained if he did not give up the presidency. The presidency is now in the past tense. (Estrada vs. Desierto, G.R. Nos. 146710-15)

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POLITICAL LAW COMMITTEE

CHAIRMAN: Lady Jay Gutierrez VICE-CHAIRMAN:Juan Paulo Abello, MEMBERS: Nicolas Tristan Hinayon, Vanessa Alogoc, Mignon Chrix Cu, Grace Binuya, Jean Paul Dato, Danna Buenaventura, Rosyn Alvaran, Jaynee Dialola

RECOLETOS DE MANILA SCHOOL OF LAW

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POLITICAL LAW COMMITTEE

CHAIRMAN: Lady Jay Gutierrez VICE-CHAIRMAN:Juan Paulo Abello, MEMBERS: Nicolas Tristan Hinayon, Vanessa Alogoc, Mignon Chrix Cu, Grace Binuya, Jean Paul Dato, Danna Buenaventura, Rosyn Alvaran, Jaynee Dialola

RECOLETOS DE MANILA SCHOOL OF LAW 11