"CONSTITUTIONAL" Atty. Evalyn G. Ursua on Section 10 of the People’s Initiative -- AN ACT ABOLISHING THE PORK BARREL SYSTEM

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Some lawyers see Section 10 the People’s Initiative -- AN ACT ABOLISHING THE PORK BARREL SYSTEM as unconstitutional. Lawyer Evalyn Ursua says it IS Constitutional.

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  • 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

  • 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

    cannot be used to defeat that, unless they can point to a pertinent limitationeither in the Constitution or in the enabling law.

  • 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