Topic: Limits on Rule-Making Power

#51: Lokin v. COMELEC (Bersamin, J.; En Banc, 2010)

DOCTRINE: An administrative IRR, in order to be valid, must

comply with the following requisites to be valid: (1) its
promulgation must be authorized by the Legislature; (2) it must
be within the scope of the authority given by the Legislature; (3) it
must be promulgated in accordance with the prescribed
procedure; and (4) it must be reasonable.

SUMMARY: Participating in the 2007 elections, CIBAC Partylist

submitted its list of nominees to the COMELEC that included Luis
Lokin as 2nd nominee. One week prior to elections, CIBAC sent a
certificate withdrawing the nomination of Lokin substituted by
Cinchona Cruz-Gonzales. CIBAC won two partylist seats in
Congress. COMELEC approved the withdrawal of Lokin’s
nomination and proclaimed Cruz-Gonzales as the 2nd
representative of CIBAC. The SC declared as invalid Section 13 of
Resolution No. 7804, the rule governing the partylist nominations
for the 2007 elections, to the extent that it authorized a partylist
organization to withdraw its nomination of a nominee already
submitted to the COMELEC. CIBAC’s withdrawal of Lokin’s
nomination and his substitution were invalid and ineffectual. SC
ordered COMELEC to proclaim Lokin as CIBAC’s 2nd
representative.

ISSUE: Whether the COMELEC can issue IRRs that provide a

ground for the substitution of a partylist nominee not written in
the Partylist System Act (RA 7941) – NO

RULING: Section 8 of RA 7941 enumerated only three instances

when the partylist organization can substitute another person in
place of the nominee whose name has been submitted to the
COMELEC, namely: (1) when the nominee dies; (2) when the
nominee withdraws in writing his nomination; and (3) when the
nominee becomes incapacitated. Section 13 of Resolution 7804
expanded the exceptions under Section 8 of RA 7941 by adding a
fourth instance, that is, when the nomination is withdrawn by the
party. COMELEC, as the administrative agency tasked to
implement RA 7941, may not construe it by expanding its
meaning in issuing Resolution 7804. The law itself cannot be
expanded by IRRs because an administrative agency cannot
amend an act of Congress.