5/20/2018 "CONSTITUTIONAL" Atty. Evalyn G. Ursua on Section 10
of the People s Initiative -...
http:///reader/full/constitutional-atty-evalyn-g-ursua-on-section-10-of-the-peo
Atty. Evalyn G. Ursua on Article 10 of the Peoples
Initiative--!" !$%!&'()*+)", %+- .'/0 &!//-( *1*%-2
The repealing clause of the bill does not clip the plenary power
of the Congress tolegislate on all matters. It only pertains to
this one piece of proposed legislation.
Our legal basis is Article VI, Section 1 of the Constitution. It
provides: "Thelegislative power shall be vested in the Congress of
the Philippines which shallconsist of a Senate and a House of
Representatives, except to the extent reservedto the people by the
provision on initiative and referendum."
What Congress has is merely delegatedlegislative power. What is
reserved to thepeople is their sovereign power to legislate laws.
The delegated power cannot besuperior to the sovereign power. How
is sovereign power circumscribed? Onlythe Constitution, and to some
extent the enabling legislation, can circumscribethe reserved
sovereign power of the people.
There is no prohibition in the Constitution against the people
setting the terms ofthe repeal of a law passed by initiative.
Neither does the enabling legislationcircumscribe the people's
sovereign power to legislate insofar as the repealingclause is
concerned.
There are two provisions in Article VI (on the legislative
department) in theConstitution that are relevant:
Section 1.The legislative power shall be vested in the Congress
of thePhilippines which shall consist of a Senate and a House of
Representatives,except to the extent reserved to the people by the
provision on initiative and
referendum.
Section 32.The Congress shall, as early as possible, provide for
a system ofinitiative and referendum, and the exceptions therefrom,
whereby the people candirectly propose and enact laws or approve or
reject any act or law or part thereofpassed by the Congress or
local legislative body after the registration of a petitiontherefor
signed by at least ten per centum of the total number of
registeredvoters, of which every legislative district must be
represented by at least three percentum of the registered voters
thereof.
Nothing is said in those provisions that the people cannot
ordain in the bill that it
cannot be repealed or amended except by the system of
initiative. If you examinethe enabling legislation (RA 6735), which
is the law passed in implementation ofSection 32 above, it sets no
limitation either on the manner of amendment orrepeal of a law
passed by the people through national initiative.
Given that this is an exercise of the sovereign power of the
people -- that theyreserved to themselves in the Constitution --
the repealing clause is perfectlywithin the exercise of that
reserved sovereign power. And the delegated power
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