AQUINO VS COMELEC

Political Law De Jure vs De Facto Government

On January 21, 1975, a petition for prohibition was filed to seek the nullification of
some Presidential Decrees. The first ground upon which the petition is predicated states that
Marcos does not hold any legal office nor possess any lawful authority under either the 1935
Constitution or the 1973 Constitution and therefore has no authority to issue the questioned
proclamations, decrees and orders. This challenges the title of the incumbent President to the
office of the Presidency and therefore is in the nature of a quo warranto proceedings, the
appropriate action by which the title of a public officer can be questioned before the courts.
Only the Solicitor General or the person who asserts title to the same office can legally file
such a quo warranto petition. The petitioners, however, do not claim such right to the office
and not one of them is the incumbent Solicitor General.

ISSUE: Whether or not the Marcos government is a lawful government.

HELD: First of, petitioners do not have the personality to file suit. On the issue at bar, the SC
affirmed the validity of Martial Law Proclamation No. 1081 issued on September 22, 1972 by
President Marcos because there was no arbitrariness in the issuance of said proclamation
pursuant to the 1935 Constitution; that the factual bases had not disappeared but had even
been exacerbated; that the question as to the validity of the Martial Law proclamation has
been foreclosed by Section 3(2) of Article XVII of the 1973 Constitution. Under the (1973)
Constitution, the President, if he so desires; can continue in office beyond 1973. While his
term of office under the 1935 Constitution should have terminated on December 30, 1973, by
the general referendum of July 27-28, 1973, the sovereign people expressly authorized him
to continue in office even beyond 1973 under the 1973 Constitution (which was validly
ratified on January 17, 1973 by the sovereign people) in order to finish the reforms he
initiated under Martial Law; and as aforestated, as this was the decision of the people, in
whom sovereignty resides . . . and all government authority emanates . . ., it is therefore
beyond the scope of judicial inquiry. The logical consequence therefore is that President
Marcos is a de jure President of the Republic of the Philippines.