Facts:

• The Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, also known as Republic Act No. 9165, came
into effect in 2002. Candidates for public office, secondary and postsecondary school students,
officers and staff members of public and private offices, and people accused of certain crimes
before the prosecutor's office must submit to mandatory drug testing under section 36 of that
law.
• In preparation for the May 10, 2004, synchronized national and local elections, COMELEC issued
Resolution No. 6486 in December 2003, laying out the rules and regulations for the mandatory
drug testing of candidates for public office. Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. filed a Petition for
Certiorari and Prohibition under Rule 65. He is running for reelection in the May elections. In it,
he requests two things: (1) that Section 36(g) of RA 9165 and COMELEC Resolution No. 6486,
both dated December 23, 2003, be declared invalid for imposing additional requirements on
senatorial candidates beyond those already set forth in the 1987 Constitution; and (2) that the
COMELEC be restrained from putting Resolution No. 6486 into effect.
• To be a candidate for, elected to, and a member of the Senate, a person must only meet a
maximum of five (5) requirements, claims Pimentel. He claims that the Congress and COMELEC
have added a requirement that all senator candidates must first be certified as drug-free by
requiring, via RA 9165 and Resolution No. 6486, a senatorial aspirant to undergo a mandatory
drug test alongside other candidates. He continues by saying that neither the Congress nor the
COMELEC are given the authority by the Constitution to raise the bar for potential senator
candidates.
Issue:
Whether or not Sec 36 of RA 9165 and Resolution 6486 are constitutional.

Ruling:
Accordingly, Sec. 36(g) of RA 9165 should be, as it is hereby declared as, unconstitutional. It is
basic that if a law or an administrative rule violates any norm of the Constitution, that issuance is
null and void and has no effect. The Constitution is the basic law to which all laws must conform;
no act shall be valid if it conflicts with the Constitution. In the discharge of their defined functions,
the three departments of government have no choice but to yield obedience to the commands of
the Constitution. Whatever limits it imposes must be observed.
The provision [n]o person elected to any public office shall enter upon the duties of his office until
he has undergone mandatory drug test is not tenable as it enlarges the qualifications. COMELEC
cannot, in the guise of enforcing and administering election laws or promulgating rules and
regulations to implement Sec. 36, validly impose qualifications on candidates for senator in
addition to what the Constitution prescribes. If Congress cannot require a candidate for senator to
meet such additional qualification, the COMELEC, to be sure, is also without such power. The right
of a citizen in the democratic process of election should not be defeated by unwarranted
impositions of requirement not otherwise specified in the Constitution.