Tolentino v Commission on Elections

41 SCRA 702
October 16, 1971

FACTS: The Constitutional Convention of 1971 scheduled an advance plebiscite on the proposal to lower
the voting age from 21 to 18, before the rest of the draft of the Constitution then under revision had been
approved. Petitioner made a petition for prohibition principally to restrain the respondent from
undertaking said plebiscite by contending said resolutions to be without the force and effect of law in so
far as they direct the holding of such plebiscite. Petitioner also argued that the acts of the respondent
Commission be performed and done with obedience to the aforesaid Convention resolutions to be null
and void, for violating the Constitution of the Philippines.

ISSUE: Whether or not the respondent’s undertaking in scheduling an advance plebiscite is in violation of
the Constitution.

RULING: The petition is granted by the Supreme Court on the ground that amendments shall be “approved
by a majority of votes cast at an election at which the amendments are submitted to the people for
ratification”. The Supreme Court likewise stressed that the use of the word “election” meant that the
entire Constitution must be submitted for ratification in one plebiscite only.