STATUTORY CONSTRUCTION

Caltex v Palomar defines it as the “art or process of discovering and expounding the meaning and intention of the
authors of the law with respect to its application to a given case where that intention is rendered doubtful, among
others, by reason of the fact that the given case is not explicitly provided for in the law.”

CONSTRUCTION v. INTERPRETATION

Construction –drawing of conclusions with respect to subjects that are beyond the direct expression of the text from
elements known and given in the text.

Interpretation – process of discovering the true meaning of the language used.

 The situs of both construction and interpretation belong to the judicial department.

REQUISITIES FOR THE COURTS TO CONSTRUE AND INTERPRET LAW

Two requisites must concur before the courts become duty bound to construe and interpret laws:

1. There must be an actual case or controversy, meaning, a case brought to the court by party litigants to hear and settle
their disputes.

2. There is ambiguity in the law involved in the controversy.

WHEN IS THERE AMBIGUITY?

There is ambiguity when there is doubtfulness, doubleness of meaning, duplicity, indistinctiveness, or uncertainty of
meaning of an expression used in a written instrument. The language used is wanting in clearness or definiteness,
difficult to conmprehend and distinguish, and of doubtful import.

Ambiguity is a condition of admitting two or more meanings, of being understood in more than one way, or of referring
to two or more things at the same time.

DIFFERENT KINDS OF CONSTRUCTION AND INTERPRETATION

Hermeneutics – the science or art of construction and interpretation

Legal hermeneutics – systematic body of rules which are recognized as applicable to the construction and interpretation
of legal writings.

Classification of the different kinds of interpretation:

1. Close – literal interpretation; narrowest meaning

2. Extensive – liberal interpretation; more comprehensive signification of the words

3. Extravagant – substitutes a meaning evidently beyond the true one.

4. Free or unrestricted – proceeds simply on the general principles of interpretation in good faith, not bound by any
specific or superior principle

5. Limited or restricted – influenced by other principles than the strictly hermeneutic ones.
6. Predestined – takes place if the interpreter, with bias, makes the text subservient to his preconceived views and
desires.

STATUTES

The legislature has the authority to make, alter or repeal laws.

Steps on the becoming of a law

1. A member of Congress introduces a proposed bill to the Secretary of Congress who will calendar the same for the first
reading. The proponent must affix his signature in the proposed bill stating his purpose.

2. In the first reading, the bill is read by its number and title only.

3. After first reading, the House speaker refers the bill to appropriate committee for study. Public hearings (involving
necessary parties, persons, orgs or sectors of societies) shall be adopted by the appropriate committee. The committee
shall decide WON to report the bill favorably or whether a substitute bill should be sought. (If unfavorable: bill is dead)

4. Upon favorable action by the committee, the bill shall be calendared for 2 nd reading.

5. In the2nd reading, the bill is read in its entirety.

6. The bill is set for open debates where Congress members may propose amendments and insertions to the proposed
bill.

7. After passing 2nd reading and at least 3 calendar days before its final passage, the bill is printed in its final form and
copies are distributed to the members of the House, unless the President in writing certifies as to the necessity of the
immediate enactment of the bill.

8. The bill is then calendared for 3 rd and final reading. (No amendments are allowed; only the title is read; and voting
shall follow. Only a majority of the present members constituting a quorum is needed) Quorum: 50 % plus One of the
members

9. If the YES vote wins, the bill shall go to the other House where it undergo another three readings on three separate
days. If there is variance in the proposed bill, it may pass thru the bicameral conference committee which can introduce
amendments to suit both houses of Congress, resulting to a compromise bill.

If the NO vote wins, the proposed bill is DEAD.

10. The President shall sign the law if he approves the same, otherwise, he shall veto it and return the same with his
objections to the House where it originated. If it is approved by 2/3 of ALL its members, it shall be sent, together with
the objections, to the other House, and if it is approved by all the members of that House, it shall become a law.

If the President has not acted upon the bill within 30 days, the bill shall become a law as if he had signed it.

CONSTITUTIONAL TEST IN THE PASSAGE OF A BILL

Re: Mechanical procedures in the passage of a bill, there are 3 requirements:

1. Every bill passed by Congress shall embrace only one subject which shall be expressed in the title thereof.
Purposes:

a. To prevent hodge-podge or log-rolling legislation;

b. To prevent surprise or fraud upon the legislature; and

 c. To fairly apprise the people, through such publications of legislative proceedings as is usually made, of
the subjects of legislation that are being considered, in order that they may have opportunity of being
heard thereon by petition or otherwise, if they shall so desire.

2. No bill passed by either House shall become a law unless it has passed three readings on separate days, and
printed copies thereof in its final form have been distributed to each member three days before its
passage, except when the President certifies to the necessity of its immediate enactment to meet a
public calamity or emergency. Upon the last reading of a bill, no amendment thereto shall be allowed,
and the vote thereon shall be taken immediately thereafter, and the yeas and nays entered in the
journal.

PARTS OF A STATUTE

a. Title – heading on the preliminary part, furnishing the name by which the act is individually known. It is usually
prefixed to the statute in the form of a brief summary of its contents.

b.Preamble – explains the reasons for its enactment and the objects sought to be accomplished, usually starting with
“WHEREAS”. It is a declaration by the legislature of the reasons for the passage of the statute.

c. Enacting Clause – declares its enactment and serves to identify it as an act of legislation proceeding from the proper
legislative authority usually starting with “BE IT ENACTED”

d. Body – the main and operative part of he statute containing substantive and even procedural provisions. Provisos and
exceptions may also be found in the body of the statute.

e. Repealing clause – announces the prior statutes or specifies provisions which have been abrogated by reason of the
enactment of the new law.

f. Saving clause – a restriction in a repealing act, which is intended to save rights, pending proceedings, penalties, etc.,
from the annihilation which would result from an unrestricted repeal.

g. Separability clause – provides that in the event that one or more provisions are declared void or unconstitutional, the
remaining provisions shall still be in force.

h. Effectivity clause – that part of the statute which announces the effective date of the law.

KINDS OF STATUTES

1. General Law – affects the community at large, relating to a subject of a general nature, affecting all people of the state
or all of a particular class

2. Special Law – different from others of the same general kind or designed for a particular purpose, or limited in range
or confined to a prescribed field of action on operation.

3. Local Law – relates or operates over a particular locality instead of over the whole territory of the state.

4. Public Law – a general classification of law, consisting generally of constitutional, administrative, criminal and
international law, concerned with the organization of the state, the relations between the state and the people who
compose it, the responsibilities of public officers to the state, to each other, and to private persons, and the relations of
states to one another. It may be general, local, or special law.

5. Private Law – portions of the law which defines, regulates, enforces, and administers relationships among individuals,
associations and corporations.
6. Remedial Statute – provides means or methods whereby causes of action may be effectuated, wrongs redressed and
relief obtained.

7. Curative Statute – a form of retrospective legislation which reaches back into the past to operate upon past events,
acts or transactions in order to correct errors and irregularities and to render valid and effective many attempted acts
which would otherwise be ineffective for the purpose intended.

8. Penal Statute – defines criminal offenses and specify corresponding fines and punishments.

9. Prospective Law – applicable only to cases which shall arise after its enactment.

10. Retrospective Law – looks backward or contemplates the past

11. Affirmative Statute – couched in affirmative or mandatory terms. One which directs the doing of an act, or declares
what shall be done in contrast to a negative statute which is one that prohibits a thing from being done, or declares
what shall be done.

12. Mandatory Statute – generic term describing statutes which require not merely permit a course of action.

VAGUE STATUTES

When is it vague? When it lacks comprehensible standards that men of “common intelligence must necessarily
guess at its meaning and differ as to its application.”

They are repugnant to the Constitution because (1) it violates due process for failure to accord persons,
especially the parties targeted by it, fair notice of the conduct to avoid (2) it leaves enforcers unbridled discretion in
carrying out its provisions and becomes and arbitrary flexing of the government muscle.

REPEALS

Express Repeal – abrogation or annulling of a previously existing law by the enactment of a subsequent statute
which declares that the former law shall be revoked and abrogated.

Implied Repeal – two categories:

a. Where provision in the two acts on the same subject matter are in an irreconcilable
conflict, the later act to the extent of conflict constitutes an implied repeal of the earlier
one.

b. It the later act covers the whole subject of the earlier one and is clearly intended as a
substitute, it will operate to repeal the earlier law.

TEST OF VALID ORDINANCE

An ordinance is an act passed by the local legislative body in the exercise of its law-making authority. In case of
conflict between an ordinance and a statute, the ordinance must give way. Why? Because municipal governments are
only agents of the national government. Local councils exercise only delegated legislative powers conferred on them by
Congress as the national law making body.

An ordinance must conform to the following substantive requirements:

1. It must not contravene the Constitution or any statute;

2. It must not be unfair or oppressive;

 3. It must not be partial or discriminatory;

4. It must not prohibit but may regulate trade;

5. It must be general and consistent with public policy; and

6. It must not be unreasonable.

BASIC GUIDELINES IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND INTERPRETATION OF LAWS

1. Legislative Intent is determined principally from the language of the statute (Case: Socorro Ramirez v. CA & Ester S.
Garcia)

2. VerbaLegis(Plain Meaning Rule) – The statute must be interpreted literally. If the language of the statute is plain and
free from ambiguity, and expresses a single, definite, and sensible meaning, that meaning is conclusively presumed to be
the meaning which the legislature intended to convey. (Case: Globe Mackay v. NLRC and Imelda Salazar;
FelicitoBasbacio v Sec of Justice)

3. In interpreting a statute, care should be taken that every part be given effect. Legislative intent must be ascertained
from a consideration of the statute as a whole and not merely of a particular provision. (JMM Promotions v NLRU;
Radiola Toshiba v. IAC; Asporna v. CA & People)

4. A construction that gives to the language used in a statute a meaning that does not accomplish the purpose for which
the statute was enacted should be rejected. (De Guia v. Comelec)

5. Between two statutory interpretations, that which better serves the purpose of the law should prevail (Salenillas v.
CA)

6. Cessanterationelegis, cessatipsalex. When the reason of the law ceases, the law itself ceases (Case: Commendador v.
Camera, et.al)

7. Doctrine of necessary implications. What is implied in a statute is as much a part thereof as that which is expressed.
(Cases: Chua v. Civil Service Commission; City of Manila v. Judge Gomez and Esso Phils)

8. CassusOmissus pro moissohabendusest. A person, object or thing omitted from an enumeration must be held to
have been omitted intentionally. This rule can operate and apply only if and when the omission has been clearly
established. (Case: People v. Manantan)

9. Stare Decisis. Follow past precedents and do not disturb what has been settled. Matters already decided on the
merits cannot be relitigated again and again. Why? It is against public policy that matters already decided on the merits
be relitigated again, consuming the courts’ time and energies at the expense of other litigants (Cases: People v.
Manantan; Tuason v. Aquial, et.al, CIR vs. Fortune Tobacco Corporation)

CONSTRUCTION AND INTERPRETATION OF WORDS AND PHRASES

1. When the law does not distinguish, courts should not distinguish. The rule, founded on logic, is a corollary of the
principle that general words and phrases of a statute should originally be accorded their natural and general
significance. (PBAC, Inc. v. IAC; Pilar v. Comelec; People v. Evangelista &Tugonon)

2. When the law does not make any exception, courts may not except something compelling reasons exist to justify it.
(Case: De Villa v. CA)

3. General terms may be restricted by specific words, with the result that the general language will be limited by specific
language which indicates that statute’s object and purpose. The rule is applicable only to cases wherein, except for one
general term, all the items in an enumeration belong to or fall under one specific class. (Colgate-Palmolive Phils. V
Jimenez; Bellis v. Bellis; Mutuc v. Comelec)

4. Ejusdem Generis – where general words follow an enumeration of persons or things, by words of a particular, and
specific meaning, such general words are not to be construed in their widest extent, but are to be held as applying only
to persons or things of the same kind or class as those specifically mentioned. Such may be resorted to when legislative
intent is uncertain. (Republic v. Migrinio and Tecson; People v. Echavez, et.al; Vera v. Cuevas

5. ExpressioUniusEstExclusioAlterius. The express mention of one person, thing, act, or consequence excludes all
others. (Gannan v. IAC & People; Dazon v. Yap; Lerum, et. Al. v. Cruz, et.al; Santos To v. Pano; Manabat v. De Aquino

6. Noscitur A Sociis. Associated Words. Where a particular word is equally susceptible of various meanings, its correct
construction may be made specific by considering the company of terms in which it is found or with which it is
associated. (Buenaseda v. Flavier; People v. Santiago; Caltex v. Palomar)