What is statutory construction?

What are the tools to construe and interpret a statute?

Statutory construction in the process of determining what the law means so

that the court may apply accurately, it is also the process by which a court
interprets and applies the law.

Our government is composed of three separate and sovereign yet

interdependent branches;

The Executive branch and the Judicial branch are branches that are co-equal.
Now the law is initiated by the legislative branch composed of a Senate and
House of Representatives, these laws are meant to be implemented and that
task is in the hands of the Executive Department composed of the President
and under him the various executive departments and the local government
units. These laws can be challenged and that is when the judicial branch
comes in, it interprets and applies the law to the problems presented to the
judicial branch which is composed of the Supreme Court and all other courts
under it.

RULES OF STATUTORY CONSTRUCTION

1. Plain Language Rule under this rule the court is bound to apply the
plain language of a statue to give effect to the intention of the
legislature, thus if the language is clear and unambiguous like shall
not; do not; and will not then apply it as it is the court will not engage
in statutory construction however if applying the plain language of the
statute leads to an absurd result or a result that is contrary to the
obvious intention of the legislature then the court will use the tools of
statutory construction to disregard the letter of the law and go into the
intent of the legislature.

2. Legislative History when a present law is a mere reiteration of a

previously law or previous laws but maybe by reason of wrong choice
of words or faulty amendments the present law is ambiguous or
absurd so what the courts can do is to check the language of the
previous laws or maybe the interpretations as well as the explanations
of the legislators when they enacted the previous laws now this can
 guide the courts in interpreting the present law putting it in the right
context.
Example:
Rules on Citizenship under our constitution, rules have actually been
developed through several constitutions starting with the 1935
constitution. Thus, from time to time when the citizenship of certain
officials or persons is challenged before the court the court will take
into account the legislative history of our rules on citizenship starting
from the 1935 constitution.

3. Constitutional Presumption statutes are presumed to be constitutional

thus if a statute admits of two interpretations one of which is that it is
constitutional and the other one it is unconstitutional the courts would
choose the constitutional presumption in fact under the rules of the
supreme court when the vote on a constitutional issue is 50/50 the
court will decide for its constitutionality that's how strong the
presumption of constitutionality is.

4. Contextual Reading under this rule the statute is to be read as a whole

in context and if possible the court is to give effect to every word of
the statue the court is to give sensible consistent and harmonious
effect to all parts of the statute now there have been instances in the
past where the supreme court struck down certain provisions of a
statute for being unconstitutional but leaving the rest undisturbed.
Example:
The Reproductive Health Law where the supreme court declared the
law constitutional but declared unconstitutional section 7, 17 and 23
for being violative of the freedom of religion as well as for being
oppressive.

5. Prospective Application under this rule statutes are supposed to apply

to facts and events happening after the enactment of a statute.
Congress is supposed to think of a cure for the present to change the
future so it's not supposed to apply two things that already happened
in the past but note that congress may state that the law can apply
retroactively and this is true in case of remedial and curative statutes
such as when the statute is beneficial to the accused.

6. The Recent Ones Control Over The Earlier Ones a conflict between a
statute enacted this year and a statute enacted a year before the later
one shall take control because being the more recent statute it is
presumed to be a correction or a rectification of the earlier one.
7. The Specific Prevails Over The General in a conflict between a
specific law and a general law, the specific law prevails because the
specific statement prevails over the general statement.
Example:
The Revised Penal Code which is a General Law has a chapter on
public officers but we also have Republic Act 3019 or the anti-graft
and Corrupt Practices Act, now since Republic Act 3019 is a more
specifically; it prevails over the revised penal code which is a general
law.
The Civil Code has a chapter on obligations and contracts that is a
general chapter also, it has a chapter on sales so the chapter on sales is
a specific provision in the same law so the provisions on sales will
control over the provisions on obligations and contracts.

8. In Pari Materia means upon the same matter or subject. Assume that a
statute is ambiguous to better understand it. The court can look at
similar statutes meaning, statutes touching on the same subject matter
so that the ambiguous statute can be placed in a proper context and
harmonized when its related statutes.
Example:
Women's Rights, we have several laws touching on women's rights.
We have women in nation-building and the magna carta of women, if
a part of these statutes or one of these two statutes turn out to be
ambiguous it can be better understood by looking at the other statutes
that are related to better understand the wisdom and intent of the
legislature.

9. Ejusdem Generis means of the same kind, class or nature. A statute

lists certain things and at the end of the list is a general statement or a
catch-all phrase. The court will assume that the general statement
includes only the things that are similar to those items listed for.
Example:
The rules of court provides for the grounds for disbarment of a lawyer
in the list is it malpractice, gross misconduct and among other things
but at the end of the ugliest is the phrase “any other violation of the
oath”. Now this general statement should mean to include only those
infractions that are the same to those listed. We need to say in
fractions that reflect on the unfitness of the lawyer to continue in the
practice of law. so that's how Ejusdem Generis is applied but tends to
rule of statutory construction.

10.Expressio Unius Est Exclusio Alterius which means the expressed

mention of one thing excludes all others.
Example:
A statute has a list of things, that list is deemed exclusive and the
statute will apply only to those items listed and not to others. To give
the statute an extended application will be committing the crime of
overbreathe and the law can be struck down as unconstitutional.