PHILIPPINE BAR ASSOCIATION v.

COMELEC

140 SCRA 455 | January 7, 1986

FACTS:

Eleven petitions were filed for prohibition against the enforcement of BP 883 which calls for special
national elections on February 7, 1986. for the offices of President and Vice President of the Philippines.
BP 883 in conflict with the constitution in that it allows the President to continue holding office after the
calling of the special election. Senator Pelaez submits that President Marcos’ letter of conditional
“resignation” did not create the actual vacancy required in Section 9, Article 7 of the Constitution which
could be the basis of the holding of a special election for President and Vice President earlier than the
regular elections for such positions in 1987. The letter states that the President is: “irrevocably
vacat(ing) the position of President effective only when the election is held and after the winner is
proclaimed and qualified as President by taking his oath office ten (10) days after his proclamation.”

The unified opposition, rather than insist on strict compliance with the cited constitutional provision
that the incumbent President actually resign, vacate his office and turn it over to the Speaker of the
Batasang Pambansa as acting President, their standard bearers have not filed any suit or petition in
intervention for the purpose nor repudiated the scheduled election. They have not insisted that
President Marcos vacate his office, so long as the election is clean, fair and honest.

ISSUE:

Whether B.P Blg. 883 unconstitutional.

HELD:

No. There are less than 10 required votes to declare BP 833 unconstitutional. Thus, petitions are
dismissed, writs are denied. The petitions in these cases are dismissed and the prayer for the issuance of
an injunction restraining respondents from holding the election on February 7, 1986, in as much as there
are less than the required 10 votes to declare BP 883 unconstitutional.

The events that have transpired since December 3 (Cory declared bid for presidency), as the Court did
not issue any restraining order, have turned the issue into a political question (from the purely
justiciable issue of the questioned constitutionality of the act due to the lack of the actual vacancy of the
President’s office) which can be truly decided only by the people in their sovereign capacity at the
scheduled election, since there is no issue more political than the election. The Court cannot stand in
the way of letting the people decide through their ballot, either to give the incumbent president a new
mandate or to elect a new president.

Coffee Beans

IN RE: SATURNINO v. BERMUDEZ

145 SCRA 160 | October 24, 1986

FACTS:

Saturnino Bermudez, as a lawyer, questioned the validity of the first paragraph of Section 5 of Article
XVIII of the proposed 1986 Constitution, which provides in full as follows:

Sec. 5. The six-year term of the incumbent President and Vice-President elected in the February 7, 1986
election is, for purposes of synchronization of elections, hereby extended to noon of June 30, 1992.

The first regular elections for the President and Vice-President under this Constitution shall be held on
the second Monday of May, 1992.

Bermudez claims that the said provision “is not clear” as to whom it refers, he then asks the Court “to
declare and answer the question of the construction and definiteness as to who, among the present
incumbent President Corazon Aquino and Vice President Salvador Laurel and the elected President
Ferdinand E. Marcos and Vice President Arturo M. Tolentino being referred to as the “incumbent
president”.

ISSUE:

Whether said provision is ambiguous.

HELD:
No. The petition is dismissed outright for lack of jurisdiction and for lack for cause of action. Petitioner’s
allegation of ambiguity or vagueness of the aforequoted provision is manifestly gratuitous, it being a
matter of public record and common public knowledge that the Constitutional Commission refers
therein to incumbent President Corazon C. Aquino and Vice-President Salvador H. Laurel, and to no
other persons, and provides for the extension of their term to noon of June 30, 1992 for purposes of
synchronization of elections. Hence, the second paragraph of the cited section provides for the holding
on the second Monday of May, 1992 of the first regular elections for the President and Vice-President
under said 1986 Constitution. In previous cases, the legitimacy of the government of President Corazon
C. Aquino was likewise sought to be questioned with the claim that it was not established pursuant to
the 1973 Constitution.