Q: What is Political Law?

A: branch of public law which deals with the organization and operation of the government
organs of the state and defines the relations of the state with the inhabitants of its territory.
(Sinco, Phil Political Law 1, 11th ed., 1962)
Q: What is the scope of Political law? [PA-CON-A-CORP]
A: (1) law of public administration - deals with the organization and management of the
different branches of the government; (2) constitutional law deals with the guaranties of the
constitution to individual rights and the limitations on governmental action; (3) administrative
law deals with the exercise of executive power in the making of rules and the decision of
questions affecting private rights and; (4) law of public corporations deals with governmental
agencies for local government or for other special purposes.

Q: What is a Constitution?
A: The written instrument, by which the fundamental powers of government are established,
limited and defined, and by which those powers are distributed among the several departments
for their safe and useful exercise for the benefit of the body politic.

Q: What are the 3 basic powers of the State? [PET]
A: Police Power, Power of Eminent Domain and Power of Taxation.
Notes: POLICE POWER
The power of promoting the public welfare by restraining and regulating the use of
liberty and property; The power vested in the legislature by the constitution to make,
ordain, and establish all manner of wholesome and reasonable laws, statutes, and
ordinance, either with penalties or without, not repugnant to the constitution, as they
shall judge to be for the good and welfare of the commonwealth, and of the subjects of
the same; The power of the state to regulate liberty and property for the promotion of
the general welfare; The persons acts and acquisitions are hemmed in the police power;
It is the most essential, insistent and the least limitable of powers, extending as it does to
all the great public needs; Police power rests upon public necessity and upon the right of
the state and of the public to self protection; Negatively, police power is defined as that
inherent and plenary (full) power in the State which enables it to prohibit all that is
hurtful to the comfort, safety, and welfare of society. (Ermita v. City of Manila, G.R. No.
L-24693, July 31, 1967.)

POWER OF EXPROPRIATION OR POWER OF EMINENT DOMAIN
Enables the state to forcibly acquire private property, upon payment of just
compensation, for some intended public use.
Power of expropriation is the highest and most exact idea of property remaining in the
government that may be acquired for some public purpose through a method in the
nature of compulsory sale to the state.
The provision should be strictly interpreted against the expropriator and liberally in
favor of the property owner.
The exercise of this power is necessarily in derogation of private rights, and the rule in
that case is that the authority must be strictly construed.
Except for police power and power of taxation, only the power of expropriation may be
exercised by public and private corporations.
Who can exercise the power of eminent domain:
1) The national government
a. Congress
b. Executive, pursuant to legislation enacted by Congress
2) Local government units, pursuant to an ordinance enacted by their respective legislative
bodies (under LGC)
3) Public utilities, as may be delegated by law.
When is the exercise of the power of eminent domain necessary?
It is only necessary when the owner does not want or opposes the sale of his property.
Thus, if a valid contract exists between the government and the owner, the government
cannot exercise the power of eminent domain as a substitute to the enforcement of the
contract.

Elements of the power of eminent domain [TA-PU-COM]
1) There is a TAKING of private property 2) Taking is for PUBLIC USE 3) Payment of JUST
COMPENSATION

"JUST COMPENSATION"
1. Compensation is just if the owner receives a sum equivalent to the market value of his
property. Market value is generally defined as the fair value of the property as between one
who desires to purchase and one who desires to sell.
2. The point of reference use in determining fair value is the value at the time the property was
taken. Thus, future potential use of the land is not considered in computing just compensation.

POWER OF TAXATION
The state is able to demand from the members of society their proportionate share or
contribution in the maintenance of the government.
Importance of taxation derives from the unavoidable obligation of the government to
protect the people and extend them benefits in the form of public projects and services.

Q: What is the nature of judicial power/review of the Supreme Court?
A: The judicial power shall be vested in one Supreme Court and in such lower courts as may be
established by law. (Sec 1, Art VIII, 1987 Phil. Constitution)
Q: What is the scope of the judicial power/review of the SC?
A: (1) To settle actual controversies involving rights which are legally demandable and
enforceable; (2) 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.

A. Nature of Judicial Power/Review
The judicial power shall be vested in one supreme court and in such lower courts as may be
established by law. (Sec 1 Art VIII)
Scope: (1) to settle actual controversies involving rights which are legally demandable and
enforceable (2) 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.

Theory of Judicial Review
- When the Court allocates constitutional boundaries, it
neither asserts supremacy, nor annuls the acts of the legislature. It simply carries out the
obligations imposed upon it by the constitution to determine conflicting claims and to establish
for the parties the rights which the constitution grants to them.

vs. Tennessee Valley Authority: In the following cases, the court must refrain
from passing on the issue of constitutionality or from exercising judicial review:
-adversary proceedings. (no vital conflict)
constitutional law in advance of the necessity of deciding it. (premature case)
rule broader than is required by the precise facts to which it is applied.
grounds upon which the case may be disposed of (not the very lis mota)
one who fails to show injury as to its operation. (no standing) availed
himself of its benefit. id the resolution
of the constitutional question.

B. Requisites for the Exercise of Judicial Review
Conditions for exercise of judicial review:
1. Appropriate case 2. Personal and substantial interest 3. Question raised at the earliest
opportunity 4. Lis mota of the case 5. Violates the constitution clearly, plainly and palpably

1. Appropriate Case - Actual Case or Controversy
determination (Nachura) The court must resolve constitutional issues only when they come to it
at the right time (ripeness).
- The exceptional character of the situation that confronts this Court,
the paramount public interest, and the undeniable necessity for a ruling, the national elections
being barely six months away, reinforce this stand. It would appear undeniable, therefore, that
before this Court is an appropriate invocation of this Court's jurisdiction to prevent the
enforcement of an alleged unconstitutional statute. The Court is left with no choice. Then, it
must act on the matter.
some reason the legal problem has become stale. When a case is moot and academic, it ceases to
be a case and controversy. Any decision reached by the court would not be conclusive on the
parties.

1) If the question is capable of repetition and evasive of review. 2) If there exits a mere
possibility of collateral legal consequences if the court does not act. 3) Voluntary cessation from
the wrongful act by the defendant, if he is free to return to his old ways.

2. Personal and Substantial Interest Standing A proper party is one who has sustained, or is in
imminent danger of sustaining, an injury as a result of the act complained of.

1. party's status and the type of legislative act being questioned 2. status and the precise nature
of the constitutional infringement.
injury, in consequence of its enforcement
: The test of standing is whether the party has alleged such a personal stake in the
outcome of the controversy as to assure such concrete adverseness which sharpens the
presentation of issues upon which the court so largely depends for illumination of difficult
constitutional questions
A person has standing to challenge the governmental act only if he has a
personal and substantial interest in the case such that he has sustained, or will sustain, direct
injury as a result of its enforcement.

A senator has the requisite standing to bring a suit assailing the issuance or
implementation of a law as a usurpation of legislative power.
A partys standing in
court is a procedural technicality which may be set aside by the Court in view of the importance
of the issues involved. Thus, where the issues raised by petitioners are of paramount public
interest or of transcendental importance, the Court may brush aside the procedural barrier
Public Works: A taxpayer may impugn the
misuse of public funds
3. Question Raised at the Earliest Opportunity - General Rule: the question must be raised in the
pleadings.
4. Lis Mota - Because of the doctrine of separation of powers which demands that proper
respect be accorded the other branches of government, courts are loath to decide on
constitutional questions as long as there is some other basis that can be used to resolve the case.
It must appear conclusively that the case before the court may not be legally settled unless the
constitutionality of the statute involved is determined (Sinco)

Q: What is political question?
A: An issue is a political question when it does not deal with the interpretation of a law and its
application to a case, but with the very wisdom of the law itself.
Q: What is a State?
A: A community of persons, more or less numerous, permanently occupying a fixed territory
and possessed of an independent government organized for political ends to which the great
body of inhabitants render habitual obedience.
Q: What are the elements of a State? Define each element. [PE-T-SO-GO]
A: (1) People inhabitants of the State; (2) Territory - fixed portion of the surface of the earth
inhabited by the people of the State; (3) Government - agency/ instrumentality through which
the will of the State is formulated, expressed, and realized; (4) Sovereignty - supreme and
uncontrollable power inherent in a State by which that State is governed
Q: What are the three branches of the government? [LEJ]
A: (1) Legislative (2) Executive (3) Judiciary

Aspects of Due Process
Strike, but hear me first!
(Ynot v. IAC, G.R. No. 74457, March 20, 1987)
1. Procedural due process refers to the mode of procedure which government agencies must
follow in the enforcement and application of laws. 2. Substantive due process prohibition
against arbitrary laws.

Note: PROCEDURAL DUE PROCESS
1. A law which hears before it condemns.
2. Due process of law contemplates notice and opportunity to be heard before judgment is
rendered affecting ones person or property (Lopez v. Dir. of Lands)

SEC. 2. The Philippines renounces war as an instrument of national
policy, adopts the generally accepted principles of international law as
part of the law of the land and adheres to the policy of peace, equality,
justice, freedom, cooperation, and amity with all nations.

Kind of war renounced by the Philippines
The Philippines only renounces AGGRESSIVE war as an instrument of national policy.
It does not renounce defensive war.

Some "generally accepted principles of international law" recognized by the Court:
(1) Right of an alien to be released on bail while awaiting deportation when his failure to
leave the country is due to the fact that no country will accept him (Mejoff v. Director of
Prisons, 90 Phil. 70) (2) The right of a country to establish military commissions to try war
criminals (Kuroda v. Jalondoni, 83 Phil. 171) (3) The Vienna Convention on Road Signs and
Signals (Agustin v. Edu, 88 SCRA 195)

Amity with all nations
This does not mean automatic diplomatic recognition of all nations. Diplomatic
recognition remains a matter of executive discretion.