1) The Philippines entered into an international agreement with members of the international

community creating the Worldwide Coaltion for Economic Growth (WCEG) which will serve as a
forum to address economic issues between nations, create standards, encourage greater volume
of trade between its members, and settle economic disputes.

After President Duterte signed the agreement, the Philippine Senate demanded that the
international agreement be submitted to it for its ratification. The President cursed the Senate
and refused, arguing that it is an executive agreement that merely created an international
organization and it dwells mainly on addressing economic issues among countries. Is the
international agreement creating the WCEG a treaty or an executive agreement? Explain.

2) Article X of the 1987 Constitution provides that no elective official shall serve for more than
three (3) consecutive terms. Rule and explain briefly the reason if the official is prohibited to run
for another term in each of the following situations:

(a) if the official is a Vice-Mayor who assumed the position of Mayor for the unexpired term
under the Local Government Code;
(b) if the official has served for three consecutive terms and did not seek a 4th term but who
won in a recall election;
(c) if the position of Mayor of a town is abolished due to conversion of the town to a city;
(d) if the official is preventively suspended during his term but was exonerated; and
(e) if the official is proclaimed as winner and assumes office but loses in an election protest.

ANSWER:

1) It is an executive agreement.

Treaties differ from executive agreements, to wit: (1) international agreements which involve
political issues or changes of national policy and those involving international arrangements of a
permanent character take the form of a treaty; while international agreements involving
adjustment of details carrying out well established national policies and traditions and involving
arrangements of a more or less temporary nature take the form of executive agreements; and
(2) in treaties, formal documents require ratification, while executive agreements become
binding through executive action.

Here, the agreement does not change the economic policy of the Philippines. Instead, it merely
involves adjustment of details carrying out such economic policy by creating the IEO wherein
States may address certain economic issues and disputes.

2) (a) The Vice Mayor who assumed the position of Mayor may still be eligible to run for the
position of Mayor because when he occupied the post of the mayor upon the incumbent’s death
and served for the remainder of the term, he cannot be construed as having served a full term as
contemplated under the subject constitutional provision. The term "served" must be one "for
which [the official concerned] was elected."
b) The official may still run for another term since the principle behind the three-term limit rule
is to prevent consecutiveness of the service of terms, and that there was in his case a break
in such consecutiveness after the end of his third term and before the recall election.

c) The official may no longer run for another term because the framers of the Constitution
specifically included an exception to the people's freedom to choose those who will govern
them in order to avoid the evil of a single person accumulating excessive power over a
particular territorial jurisdiction as a result of prolonged stay in the same office. For the
three-term limit for elective local government officials to apply, two conditions must concur:
(1) the official concerned has been elected for three consecutive terms in the same local
government post; and (2) he has served three consecutive terms.

In this case, while the new city acquired a new corporate existence separate and distinct
from that of the municipality, this does not mean, however, that for the purpose of applying
the subject Constitutional provision, the office of the municipal mayor would now be
construed as a different local government post as that of the office of the city mayor. The
territorial jurisdiction of the city is the same as that of the municipality. Consequently, the
inhabitants of the municipality are the same as those in the city. These inhabitants are the
same group of voters who elected the official concerned to be their municipal mayor for
three consecutive terms. These are also the same inhabitants over whom he held power and
authority as their chief executive for nine years.

d) The official concerned cannot anymore run for another term in violation of the prohibited
fourth term as preventive suspension does not interrupt an elective official’s term because
the suspended official continues to stay in office although he is barred from exercising the
functions and prerogatives of the office within the suspension period.

e) The official may still run for another term because he cannot be considered as having been
duly elected to the supposed third term, and that he did not fully serve such term by reason
of involuntary relinquishment of office.