 Judicial power includes the duty of the courts of justice to settle actual controversies

involving rights which are legally demandable and enforceable, and to determine whether
or not there has been a grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of
jurisdiction on the part of any branch or instrumentality of the government.
 Statutory construction is the art or process of discovering and expounding the meaning
and intention of the authors of the law with respect to its application to a given case
where that intention is rendered doubtful, among others, by reason of the fact that the
given case is not explicitly provided for in the law.
 Well known is the rule of Statutory Construction to the effect that a statute clear and
unambiguous on its face need not be interpreted; stated otherwise, the rule is that only
statutes with an ambiguous or doubtful meaning may be the subject of statutory
construction.
 The first and foremost duty of the court is to apply the law. Construction and
interpretation come only after it has been demonstrated that application is impossible or
inadequate without them.
 In the construction of statues, it must be read in such a way as to give effect to the
purpose projected in the statute. Statutes should be construed in light of the object to be
achieved, and the evil or mischief to be suppressed, and they should be given such
construction as will advance the object, suppress the mischief, and secure the benefits
included.
 It is a rule in SC that every part of the statute must be interpreted with reference to the
context, i.e. that every part of the statute must be considered together with the other
parts, and kept subservient to the general intent of the whole enactment.
o In the interpretation of a statute, the Court should start with the assumption that
the legislature intended to enact an effective law, and the legislative is not
presumed to have done a vain thing in the enactment of a statute.
o A statute should be interpreted in harmony with the Constitution. The spirit,
rather than the letter of a law determines its construction; hence, a statutes must
be read according to its spirit and intent.
 Statute is ambiguous when it is capable of being understood by reasonably well-informed
persons in either of two or more senses.
 The law should never be interpreted in such as way as to cause injustice, as this is never
within the legislative intent. We defer not to “the letter that killeth” but to the “spirit that
vivifeth”
 The spirit, rather than the letter of a statute determines its construction, hence, a statute
must be read according to its spirit or intent. For what is within the spirit is within the
letter, although it is not within the letter thereof, and that which is within the letter but
not within the spirit is not within the statute.
 A thing within the intent of the lawmaker is as much within the statute as if within the
letter and a thing which is within the letter of the statute is not within the statute unless
within the intent of the lawmakers.
 The primordial duty of the Court is merely to apply the law in such a way that it shall not
usurp legislative powers by judicial legislation, and in the course of such application, or
 construction, it should not make or supervise legislation, or under the guise of
interpretation, modify, revise, amend, distort, remodel or rewrite the law, or give the law
a construction which is repugnant to its terms. The court should apply the law in a manner
that would give effect to their letter and spirit, specially when the law is clear as to its
intent and purpose.
 In the interpretation and construction of statute, the primary rule is to ascertain and give
effect to the intention of the legislature.
 Judicial legislation is the act of a court in engrafting upon a law something that has been
omitted which someone believes ought to have been embraced. (This is forbidden by the
tripartite division of powers among the three departments of the government)
 Interpretation and application of the Constitution and of statutes is within the exclusive
province and jurisdiction of the Judiciary, and that in enacting a law, the legislature may
not legally provide therein that it be interpreted in such a way that it may not violate a
Constitutional prohibition, thereby tying the hands of the courts in their task of later
interpreting said statute, especially when the interpretation sought and provided in said
statute runs counter to a previous interpretation already given in a case by the highest
court of the land.
 The Court emphasized the necessity of upholding the authoritativeness and the stability
of its pronouncements. The Court has the constitutional duty not only of interpreting and
applying the law in accordance with prior doctrines but also of protecting the society from
the in improvidence and wantonness sought by needless upheavals in such
interpretations and applications.
 The first and fundamental duty of the Court is the application of the law according to its
express terms, interpretation being called for only when such literal application is
impossible. No process of interpretation or construction need be resorted to where a
provision of a law peremptorily calls for application.
 Equity and equitable principles only come into full play when a gap exists in the law and
jurisprudence.
 Statute is the written will of the legislature solemnly expressed according to the form
necessary to constitute it as the law of the state.
 Statutes should be interpreted in harmony with the Constitution – should never be in
conflict with other laws.
 Doctrine of Operative Fact: The law remains to be operative and constitutional until the
same has been declared void. The law that has been declared as unconstitutional remains
to be operative prior to the declaration of the Supreme Court on its constitutionality.
 Stare decisis et non quieta movere “to adhere to precedents and not to unsettle things
which are established” is embodied in Article 8 of the Civil Code.
 Once a question of law has been examined and decided, it should be deemed settled and
closed to further argument.
 The President can only issue Exec. Order, Administrative Orders, Proclamations,
Memorandum Orders, Memorandum Circulars, General or Special Orders. Under the
Administrative Code, the President is given Ordinance Power (limited to above
enumeration).
 Conditions for Congress to be allowed to grant Emergency Powers to the President:
o There must be a war or other emergency
o The delegation must be for a limited period only
o The delegation must be subject to such restrictions as the Congress may prescribe
o Emergency powers must be exercised only to carry-out a national policy declared
by Congress
 Requisites for a valid delegation:
o Congress may delegate to another branch of the Government the power to fill0in
the details in the execution, enforcement, or administration of law. It is essential
to forestall a violation of the principle of separation of powers that said law:
 Be complete in itself – it must set forth therein the policy to be executed,
carried out or implemented by the delegate
 Fix a standard – the limits of which are sufficiently determinate or
determinable – to which the delegate must conform in the performance of
his functions
 When an administrative agency promulgates rules and regulations, it makes “a new law
with the force and effect of a valid law”
 Rules and regulations, when promulgated in pursuance of the procedure or authority
conferred upon the administrative agency by law, partake the nature of a statute, and
compliance therewith may be enforced by penal sanction provided in the law.
 Administrative interpretation is at best merely advisory, for it is the courts that firmly
determine what the law means.
 To be valid, an administrative order must comply with the following requirements:
o Its promulgation must be authorized by the legislature
o It must be promulgated in accordance with the prescribed procedure
o It must be within the scope of the authority given by the legislature
o It must be reasonable
 If the application of the law results in absurdity, impossibility, or injustice, then the Courts
may resort to extrinsic aids of statutory construction, such as the legislative history of the
law, or may consider the implementing rules and regulations and pertinent executive
issuances in the nature of executive and/or legislative construction.
 Ratio legis anima – the spirit rather than the letter of the law.
 An ordinance is an act passed by the local legislative body in the exercise of its lawmaking
authority
 Tests of valid ordinance: to be valid, an ordinance must conform to the following
substantive requirements
o It must not contravene the Constitution or any other statute
o It must not be unfair or oppressive
o It must not be partial or discriminatory
o It must not prohibit, but may regulate trade
o It must be general and consistent with public policy
o It must not be unreasonable
 In case of conflict between an ordinance and statute, the ordinance must give way
 How laws are passed:
 Member – propose – secretary – calendar for first reading
 FIRST READING:
o Read by its number and title
o Referred by the speaker to the appropriate committee
o Conduct public hearings – obtain reactions and feelings on the proposed bill
o Committee – Favorable – return for second reading; Unfavorable – dead
 SECOND READING:
o Bill is read in its entirety
o Open for debates, members may propose amendments and insertions into the
proposed bill
o After approval, and at least 3 calendar days before its final passage, the bill is
printed in its final form, and copies thereof distributed to each of the members,
unless the President certifies in writing as to the necessity of the immediate
enactment of the bill (calendar for 3rd reading)
 THIRD AND FINAL READING
o No amendment, only the title of the bill is read; members will vote on the bill
o Only a majority of the members present constituting a quorum is sufficient to pass
the bill
 If NO wins – dead
 If YES – it will go to the other House where it will undergo the same process
(3 readings)
 If there is a variance in the proposed bill between the two Houses, it may pass through
the BICAMERAL CONFERENCE COMMITTEE which can introduce amendments to suit both
houses of Congress (also known as “compromise bill”)
 At this stage, the original bill conceived by the original author may no longer be his
proposed bill.)
 After the bill has been passed, it will be submitted to the President for his approval.
 If he approves, he shall sign it, otherwise, he shall veto it and return it to the originating
house (with objections), and if approved by 2/3 of such house, it shall be sent to the other
house (with the objections) by which it shall likewise be considered, and if approved by
2/3 it shall become a law.
 Every bill passed by Congress shall be acted upon by the President within 30 days from
receipt thereof, otherwise, it shall become a law as if he had signed it.
 All appropriation, revenue, or tariff bills, bills authorizing increase of public debt, bills of
local application, and private bills, shall originate exclusively in the House of
Representatives, but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments.
 The no-amendment rule refers only to the procedure to be followed by each house of
Congress with regard to bills initiated in each of said respective houses, BEFORE said bill
is transmitted to the other house for its concurrence or amendment.
 To insist that a revenue statute must substantially be the same as the House bill would be
to deny the Senate’s power not only to “concur with amendments” but also to “propose
amendments”
 It would be to violate the coequality of the legislative power of the two houses of
Congress and in fact make the House superior to the Senate
