A.

In General

1.01 Law, generally.

Law in its jural and generic sense refers to the whole body or system of law. In its jural and concrete
sense, law means a rule of conduct formulated and made obligatory by legitimate power of the state.

1.02 Statutes, generally.

A statute is an act of the legislature as an organized body, expressed in the form, and passed according
to the procedure, required to constitute it as part of the aw of the land.

Statutes may either be public or private. A public statute is one which affects the public at large or the
whole community. A private statute is one which applies only to a specific person or subject. But
whether a statute is public or private depends on substance rather than on form.

Public Statutes may be classified into general, special and local laws.

A general law is one which applies to the whole state and operates throughout the state alike upon all
the people or all of a class. It is one which embraces a class of subjects or places and does not omit any
subject or place naturally belonging to such class.

A special law is one which relates to particular persons or things of a class or to a particular community,
individual or thing.

A local law is one whose operation is confines to a specific place or locality. A municipal ordinance is an
example of a local law.

1.03 Permanent and temporary statutes.

According to its duration, a statute may be permanent or temporary.

A permanent statute is one whose operation is not limited in duration but continues until repealed. It
does not terminate by the lapse of a fixed period or by occurrence of an event. Neither disuse nor
custom or practice to the contrary operates to render it ineffective or inoperative.

A temporary statute is a statute whose duration is for a limited period of time fixed in the statute itself
or whose life ceases upon the happening of an event. Where a statute provides that it shall be in force
for a definite period, it terminates at the end of such period. Where a statute is designed to meet an
emergency, it ends upon the cessation of such emergency. Since an emergency is by nature temporary
in character, so must the statute intended to meet it, be. A limit in tie to tide over a passing trouble may
justify a law that may not be upheld as a permanent one.

1.04 Other classes of statutes.

In respect to their application, statutes may be prospective or retroactive. They may also be, according
to their operation, declaratory, curative, mandatory, directory, substantive, remedial, and penal. In
respect their forms, the may be affirmative or negative.

1.05 Manner of referring to statutes.

Statutes passed by the legislature are consecutively numbered and identified by the respective
authorities that enacted them.

B. Enactment of Statutes

1.06 Generally.

The steps and actions taken and words and language employed to enact a statute are important parts of
legislative history, which are important aids in ascertaining legislative intent, in the interpretation of
ambiguous provisions of the law. Hence, the study of statutory construction begin with HOW A BILL IS
ENACTED INTO LAW.

1.07 Legislative power of Congress.

Section 1 of Article VI of the Constitution provides that “the legislative power shall consist of a Senate
and a House of Representatives, except to the extent reserved to the people by the provision on
initiative and referendum.” Legislative power is the power to make, alter, and repeal laws.

Legislative power is “the authority, under the Constitution, to make laws, and to alter and repeal them.”
The Constitution, as the will of the people in their original, sovereign and unlimited capacity, has vested
this power in the Congress of the Philippines. The grant of legislative power is broad, general and
comprehensive. The legislative body possesses plenary power for all by usage and tradition, is
necessarily possessed by Congress, unless the Constitution has lodged it elsewhere. In fine, except as
limited by the Constitution, either expressly or impliedly, legislative power embraces all subjects and
extends to matters of general concern or common interest.

While the Constitution requires that the initiative for filing for revenue, tariff, or tax bills, bills
authorizing an increase of the public debt, private bills and bills of local application must come from the
House of Representative, on the theory that, elected as they are from the districts, the members of the
House can be expected to be more sensitive to the local needs and problems, and Senators, who are
elected at large, are expected to approach the same problem from the national perspective, both views
on any of these subjects are made to bear on the enactment of such laws.

The Constitution has explicitly provided that legislative power is the power to enact laws; executive
power, to execute the laws; and judicial, to interpret and apply the laws. By physical arrangement of the
articles on such powers, the legislative power is first and appears to be more extensive and broad than
the executive and judicial powers. For without a law, the executive has nothing to execute, and the
judiciary has nothing to interpret and apply. Thus, it has been said that the grant of legislative power
means a grant of all legislative power.