STATUTORY CONSTRUCTION

HIGHLIGHTS

1ST Semester, A.Y. 2016-2017

I. Statutes, in general
A. Definitions and Distinctions
1. What is a statute?
- an act of the legislature commanding or prohibiting something; a particular law enacted and
established by the will of the legislative department of government; the written will of the
legislature, solemnly expressed according to the forms necessary to constitute it the law of
the state.

2. What is a law?
- law means a rule of conduct formulated and made obligatory by legitimate power of the
state.

3. What is Construction?
- rootword is "construe"
- the drawing of conclusions with respect to subjects that are beyond the direct expression of
the text from elements known and given in the text.

4. What is Interpretation?
- the process of discovering the true meaning of the language used.
5. What is Statutory Construction?
- is the art or process of discovering and expounding the meaning and the intention of the
authors of the law with respect to its application in a given case, where that intention is
rendered doubtful, amongst others, by reason of the fact that the given case is not explicitly
provided for in the law.

Definition of Statutory Construction

case 1: Caltex v. Palomar (GR L-19650, 29 September 1966)
B. Parts of a Statute
1) Title - The part which announces the subject of the bill. The purpose of a title is to give a
general statement of and to call attention to the subject matter of the act. It may also
be used for identification. The title is used as a guide to ascertain the legislative will
when the language of the act does not clearly express its purpose
2) Preamble - It is the part which follows the title and precedes the enacting clause. The
preamble explains the reasons for the enactment and the ob jects sought to be
attained thereby. A preamble neither creates nor grants any right, nor is it the source
of any government power.
3) Enacting Clause - It is the part of the bill immediately preceding the body of the statue and
which identifies the bill as an act of legislation.
4) Body - It is the principal portion of the bill embodying the substance of the right or remedy

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provided for.
5) Effectivity Date - It is that portion which provides for the time when the law shall take effect

C. Enactment of a Statute (How does a bill become a law?)

- 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 its Members three (3) 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.
- Every bill passed by the Congress shall, before it becomes a law, be presented to the President.
- If he approves the same, he shall sign it; otherwise, he shall veto it and return the same with his objections
to the House where it originated, which shall enter the objections at large in its Journal and proceed to reconsider it.
- If, after such reconsideration, two-thirds (2/3) of all the Members of such House shall agree to pass the
bill, it shall be sent together with the objections, to the other House by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if
approved by two-thirds (2/3) of all the Members of that House, it shall become a law.
- In all such cases, the votes of each House shall be determined by yeas and nays, and the names of the
Members voting for or against shall be entered in its Journal.
- The President shall communicate his veto of any bill to the House where it originated within thirty (30)
days after the date of receipt thereof; otherwise, it shall become a law as if he had signed it.

D. Presidential Issuances
- Presidential issuances are those which the President issues in the exercise of his ordinance power. They
include executive orders, administrative orders, proclamations, memorandum orders, memorandum circulars, and
general or special orders. These issuances have the force and effect of laws.
- Generally, rules and regulations issued by administrative or executive officers are of two (2) types,
namely:
> those whose purpose is to enforce or implement existing law pursuant to a valid delegation or to
fill in the details of a statute (i.e. requires publication for its effectivity)
> those which are merely interpretative in nature or merely internal in character not concerning the
public (i.e. does not require publication for its effectivity)

E. Effect and Operation

F. Types/Kinds of Statutes
As to Scope of Application:
- GENERAL - One which affects all of the people of the State or all persons or things of a
particular class
- SPECIAL - One which relates either to particular persons or things of a class or which
operates on a portion of a class instead of all the classes.
- LOCAL - One which operates over a particular locality instead of over the whole
territory of the State
As to Interested Parties:
- PUBLIC - One which concerns the interest of the public at large
- PRIVATE - One which relates to, concerns and affects particular individuals
As to Effect (In Time):
- PROSPECTIVE - One which anticipates the regulation of future conduct
- RETROSPECTIVE - One that affects acts already committed and operates on
transactions completed
As to Purpose:
- REMEDIAL - Statutes which afford a remedy, or improve or facilitate existing remedies

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for the enforcement of rights and of redress of injuries

- PENAL - Those which impose a punishment for the violation of its provisions
- CURATIVE - Those which are enacted to cure defects in a prior law
As to Coercive Force Applied:
- MANDATORY - A statute is mandatory if non-compliance therewith renders the
proceedings to which it relates null and void.
- DIRECTORY - A statute or any of its provisions is directory if non-compliance therewith
does not invalidate the proceedings to which it relates.
As to Period of Effectivity:
- PERMANENT - One whose operation or activity is not limited to some particular term or
period, but continues in force until repealed or amended.
- TEMPORARY - One whose operation or effectivity is limited to a fixed period or term. It
continues in force up to the expiration of said period or term, unless
earlier repealed or amended.
As to Stage of Enactment:
- ORIGINAL - One which purports to be independent of existing statutory provision.
- AMENDATORY - One which expressly adds to or supplements, or works out an
improvement in the original law.
- REPEALING - One which revokes or terminates another statute.
- ADOPTED - Those which are adopted wholly or in part by another state.
- RE-ENACTED - These are pre-existing statues which are passed by the legislature
which originally enacted them in the same terms or in substantially the
same language and for the same purpose and object as the original
statute.

II. Statutory Construction, in general

A. When does statutory construction come in?
- "The first and fundamental duty of courts, in our judgment, is to apply the law. Construction and
interpretation come only after it has been demonstrated that application is impossible or inadequate without them."

case 2: National Federation of Labor (NFL) v. Eisma (GR L-61236, 31 January 1984)
case 3: Paat v. CA (GR 111107, 10 January 1997)
case 4: People v. Mapa (GR L-22301, 30 August 1967)
case 5: Daoang v. Municipal Judge of San Nicolas (GR L-34568, 28 March 1988)
case 6: Paras v. Comelec (GR 123169, 4 November 1996)
B. Statutory Construction vs. Judicial Legislation
Statutory Construction, whose job is it?
- "To declare what the law shall be is a legislative power, but to declare what the law is or
has been, is judicial."

case 7: Floresca v. Philex Mining (GR L-30642, 30 April 1985)

case 8: Republic v. CA and Molina (GR 108763, 13 February 1997)
C. Legislative Intent, how ascertained
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How must Legislative Intent be ascertained?

- Legislative intent must be ascertained from a consideration of the statute as a whole. The
particular words, clauses and phrases should not be studied as detached and isolated expressions, but the whole and
every part of the statute must be considered in fixing the meaning of any of its parts and in order to produce a
harmonious whole. A statute must be construed so as to harmonize and give effect to all its provisions wherever
possible.

case 9: Aisporna v. CA (GR L-39419, 12 April 1982)

China Bank v. Ortega (GR L-34964, 31 January 1973)
Board of Administrators of the PVA v. Bautista (GR L-37867, 22 Feb. 1982)
D. Power to Construe
- The duty and power to interpret or construe a statute or the Constitution belong to the judiciary. It
is the duty of the legislature to make the law; of the executive to execute the law; and of the judiciary to construe the
law.
- While the legislature may indicate its construction of a statute in the form of a resolution or
declaratory act, it cannot preclude the courts from giving the statute a different interpretation.

E. Limitations on the Power to Construe

- The courts may not enlarge nor restrict statutes.
- Courts not to be influenced by questions of wisdom.

III. Aids in Construction

A. Intrinsic Aids
B. Extrinsic Aids
case 10: Roman Catholic Archbishop of Manila v. SSC (GR L-15045, 20 Jan. 1961)
- To ascertain the true intent of the statute, the court may avail of intrinsic aids, or those found in the
printed page of the statute, and extrinsic aids, those extraneous facts and circumstances outside the printed page.
> Title - It may indicate the legislative extent or restrict the scope of law
> Preamble - It may, when the statute is ambiguous, be resorted to clarify the ambiguity, as a key to open
the minds of the lawmakers as to the purpose of the statute.
> Context of the whole text - best source from which to ascertaun the legislative intent is the statute itself
> Legislative History - Where a statute is susceptible to several interpretations, there is no better means of
ascertaining the will and intention of the legislature than that which is afforded by the history of the statute. The
history of a statute refers to all its antecedents from its inception until its enactment into law.
> Legislative debates, views and deliberations - Where there is doubt as to what a provision of a statute
means, that meaning which was put to the provision during the legislative deliberation or discussion on the bill may
be adopted.
> Reports of the Commission - In construing the provisions of the code as thus enacted, courts may
properly refer to the reports of the commission that drafted the code in aid of clarifiying ambiguities therein.
> Prior laws from which the statute is based - Legislative history will clarify the intent of the law or shed
light on the meaning and scope of the codified or revised statute.
> Change in phraseology - Courts may investigate the history of the provisions to ascertain legislative
intent as to the meaning and scope of the amended law.
> History of the times - The history of the times out of which the law grew and to which it may be
rationally supposed to bear some direct relationship.

C. Contemporary Construction

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IV. Interpretation of Statutes

A. Literal Construction
Statutes are to be interpreted in their ordinary, commonly accepted usage. When the language of
the law is clear and unequivocal, the law must be taken to mean exactly what it says. When
statutory norm speak s unequivocally, there is nothing for the Courts to do but apply it.

case: Salvatierra v. CA (GR 107797, 26 August 1996)

Kapisanan ng mga Manggagawa v. Manila Railroad Company (GR
L-25316, 28 February 1979)
a. Departure from Literal Interpretation
when literal interpretation not favored
- the rules of Court are procedural in nature while the Civil Code is substantive
- the spirit, rather than the letter, of a law determines its construction; hence, a
statute must be read according to its spirit and intent.

case: Abellana v. Marave (GR L-27760)

Paras vs. Comelec, 264 SCRA 49, supra
b. Implications
B. Executive Construction
basic rule on Executive Construction
- the contemporaneous construction of a statute by the executive officers of the
government whose duty is to execute it, is entitled to great respect, and should
ordinarily control the construction of the statute by the courts.

case : PAFLU v. Bureau of Labor Relations (GR L-43760 21 Aug 76)

when Executive Construction is not given weight
- while it is true that contemporaneous construction placed upon a statute by
executive officers must be given great weight, if such construction is clearly
erroneous, it must be declared null and void.

case: Philippine Apparel WU v. NLRC (GR L-50320 31 July 81)

IBAA Employees Union v. Inciong (GR L52415, 23 October 1984)
Chartered Bank Employees Association v. Ople (GR L-44717, 28
Aug 85)
C. Rule vs. Opinion
What is the difference between a rule and an opinion
rule- when an administrative agency promulgates rules and regulations, it makes a new law
with the force and effect of a valid law.

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opinion- gives a statement of policy and merely interprets a pre-existing law.

D. Strict Construction
E. Liberal Construction
V. Subjects of Construction
The Constitution
- it is the written instrument agreed upon by the people...as the absolute rule of action and
decision for all departments and officers of the government, and in opposition to which
any act or rule of any department or officer of the government, or even of the people
themselves, will be altogether void.

How should the constitution be construed

- the Constitution should be strictly construed so as to give effect to the whole
instrument, and to every section and clause. If different portions seem to
conflict, the Courts must harmonize them, if practicable, and must lean in
favor of a construction which will render every word operative, rather than
one which may make some words idle and nugatory.

case: Sarmiento v. Mison (GR 79974, 17 December 1987)

Perfecto v. Meer (GR L-2348, 27 February 1950)
case: Nitafan v. CIR (GR L-78780, 23 July 1987)
May the preamble be referred to in the construction of
Constitutional Provisions?
- yes, the preamble may be referred to in the construction of constitutional
provisions. When the Filipino people, in the Preamble of their
Constitution, implored the aid of Divine Providence, in order to establish
a government that shall embody their ideals, conserve and develop the
patrimony of the nation, promote the general welfare, and secure for
themselves and their posterity the blessings of independence under a
regime of justice, liberty and democracy, they thereby manifested their
intense religious nature and placed unfaltering reliance upon Him who
guides the destinies of men and nations.

Are the provisions of the Constitution self-executing?

- Constitutional provision is self executing if the nature and extent of the right
conferred and the liability imposed are fixed by the Constitution itself, so
that they can be determined by an examination and construction of its terms,
and there is no language indicating that the subject is referred to the
legislature for action.

Statute
- an act of the legislature commanding or prohibiting something; a particular law enacted and
established by the will of the legislative department of government; the written will of the
legislature, solemnly expressed according to the forms necessary to constitute it the law of

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the state.

Requirements for the publication of laws

- laws shall take effect after 15 days following the completion of their
publication in the Official Gazette unless it is otherwise provided.
- when the law is silent as to the effectivity date, publication in the Official
Gazette is necessary for determining the date of effectivity

case: Tanada v. Tuvera (GR L-63915, 24 April 1985)

case: Tanada v. Tuvera (GR L-63915, 29 December 1986)

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