Ex-SC justice Azcuna: New law needed to provide clear system for people's initiative

Congress must pass a new law that will replace Republic Act (RA) 6735, a piece of legislation enacted in 1989 deemed insufficient by the Supreme Court (SC), to provide a clear system for people's initiative and referendum.

This was the opinion shared Tuesday by retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Adolfo Azcuna Jr. in a Senate inquiry on the controversial people's initiative campaign.

Azcuna, one of the SC justices that decided on the Lambino v. Commission on Elections case in 2006, explained that the high tribunal did not reverse its decision on Santiago v. Commission on Elections in March 1997.

The retired justice was invited in the Senate inquiry amid questions on the interpretation of the SC jurisprudence on the Santiago and Lambino case, as well as the Comelec's "ministerial duty" to accept the signatures from the latest people's initiative efforts.

Under the Santiago ruling, the SC held that RA 6735 is inadequate to cover the system of initiative on amendments to the Constitution, and that it failed to provide sufficient standard for subordinate legislation.

The same decision also ruled that the "Comelec should be permanently enjoined from entertaining or taking cognizance of any petition for initiative on amendments to the Constitution until a sufficient law shall have been validly enacted to provide for the implementation of the system."

In the 2006 SC resolution on the Lambino petition, the high bench refused to revisit its earlier ruling on the Santiago case and junked all the motions for reconsideration filed by the petitioner.

"The deficiencies pointed out by [Chief Justice] Davide in RA 6735 in the Santiago v. Comelec case, that it is insufficient, inadequate, and incomplete. Can the Comelec supply that deficiency? I respectfully submit, madam chair, that the Comelec cannot supply that deficiency," Azcuna said.

"There has to be a law. Why? Because the Constitution says that Congress shall pass a law to implement this initiative. That's in Article 17. Congress is the one mandated to pass the law and there's a principle in constitutional law called potestas delegata [non potest delegari] — Where the Constitution has put the power, it shall remain there. It cannot be transferred elsewhere. And so, therefore, the Comelec cannot do it," he added.

Further, Azcuna explained that the Constitution only gives the Comelec powers to enforce and administer the law "not to complete it, not to perfect it, not to supply deficiencies."

"So, if it is incomplete, imperfect, inadequate, you cannot enforce it, you cannot administer it," he said.

"There is a need for Congress to pass a law that is adequate, complete, and sufficient," he added.

Retired Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, who is also one of the justices that decided on the Lambino case, expressed the same opinion on the matter, saying that "nothing in the dispositive portion [in the Lambino case] that reversed the Santiago Case."

Further, Carpio said that a simple revision in the 1987 Constitution cannot be done on a people's initiative.

The signature campaign supposedly led by People's Initiative for Modernization and Reform Action (PIRMA) specifically asks voters if they are in favor of amending Article 17 Section 1 of the 1987 Constitution by allowing all members of Congress to jointly vote on proposed constitutional amendments.

The existing provision, however, does not explicitly state whether the House of Representatives and the Senate should vote jointly or separately on proposed amendments to the Charter via constituent assembly.

"That [proposed amendment] is an exceptional departure. That is a revision. You cannot do that in a people's initiative. You can do that in a [constitutional convention] or [constituent assembly]," Carpio said.

"I want to emphasize again, the constitution is the highest law of the land. If you pass an ordinary law, both chambers must approve. And therefore, when you amend the highest law of the land, subject to ratification, you must also both approve," he added. — VDV, GMA Integrated News