ALDABA VS COMELEC 611 SCRA 137

FACTS:

On May 1, 2009, RA 9591 was passed into a law, which amends the Malolos Charter by creating a
separate legislative district for the city. The amendment of the Charter of Malolos will include an
increase is representation in Congress for the province of Bulacan.

The population of Malolos was contested as the house bill for this law relied on the undated certification
issued by NSO that the population of Malolos will be 254,030 by 2010 following its population growth
rate.

Petitioners, taxpayers, and registered residents of Malolos filed a petition contending that RA 9591 is
unconstitutional for failing to meet the minimum population threshold of 250,000 for a city to merit
representation in Congress.

Office of the Solicitor General contended that the Congress’ use of projected population is no-justiciable
as it involved a determination on the wisdom of the standard adopted by the legislature to determine
compliance with constitutional requirement.

ISSUES:

1. The Population requirement of the 250,000 was not met.

2. The Certificate of Population for Malolos was not signed by the person authorized by law.

HELD:

The petition was granted.

RATIONALE:

1. The 1987 Constitution requires that for a city to have a legislative district, the city must have a
population of at least 250,000. Malolos’ population requirement was not met as it was based on
a projection and not actual number of inhabitants.
2. The Certification of Regional Director Miranda, which is based on demographic projections, is
without legal effect because Regional Director Miranda has no basis and no authority to issue
the Certification. There is no showing that Regional Director Miranda has been designated by
the NSO Administrator as a certifying officer for demographic projections in Region III. In the
absence of such official designation, only the certification of the NSO Administrator can be given
credence by this Court. Only the Chief Statistician or Head of the Philippine Statistics Authority
(formerly NSO) must sign the Petition.