STATUTES
barangay ordinance, municipal ordinance, city
- 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 law of the land
- Passed by the
- Philippine Commission
- Philippine Legislature
- Batasang Pambansa
- Congress of the Philippines
- With binding force as statutes
- Presidential decree during the Martial Law
- Executive orders under the Freedom Constitution
- May either be public or private; Whether a statute is public or
private depends on the substance rather than form
- Public – affects the public at large or the whole community
 General – applies to the whole state and operates
throughout the state alike upon all the people or all
of a class
 Special – relates to particular persons or things of a
class or to a particular community, individual or
thing
 Local – confined in a specific place or locality e.g.
Municipal ordinance
- Private – applies only to a person or subject
DISTINGUISH FROM
o Constitution
- Basic law or laws of a nation or a state which sets out how
that state will be organized by deciding powers and
authorities of government between different political units
- Number one law of the land
o Ordinance
- A law passed by the municipal government
- Power of municipalities to enact ordinances is derived from
the constitution
- e.g.
ordinance, and provincial ordinance
o Administrative Order
o Acts of the president which relate to particular aspects of
governmental operations in pursuance of his duties as
administrative head
o Enforceable order issued by a public authority to an
individual or an organization to take certain corrective
action or to refrain from an activity
CLASSIFICATION OF STATUTES
1. According to duration: permanent v. temporary
(Araneta v. Dinglasan | Rodriguez v. Gella)
a. Permanent
 no specific period of its applicability is mentioned
 can only expire on either express or implied repeal
by the legislature
b. Temporary
 Enacted for a specific time
 Expires on the lapse of the period specified unless
repealed earlier
 Emergency powers (temporary in nature)
2. According to time of applicability: prospective v. retroactive
a. Prospective
 Regulate acts and transactions which shall take
place in the future
b. Retroactive
 Have been given effect and operates from some
past date and regulates the transactions which have
occurred in the past
3. According to operation: declaratory v. curative
a. Declaratory
 Reconciling conflicting judicial decisions without
proposing any additions
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  Removing doubts in law occurred due to certain
conflicting decisions of the courts
 Declaring what the law is in a particular matter
b. Curative or Validating
 Cures the defects in the prior law and validates
proceedings, instruments or acts undertaken under
that defective law
4. According to compliance requirement: mandatory v. directory
a. Mandatory
 Mandates the doing or refraining from doing certain
acts and prescribes penalties for non – observance
 Two types:
- Positive Mandatory Statute
 Require the doing of an act in a
certain manner or form and the
non-observance is sanctioned by
penalty
- Negative Mandatory Statute
 Refraining from the doing of a
certain act and providing penalty
for its contravention
b. Directory
 Recommends the doing or not doing of certain acts
but does not impose any penalty on its non-
observance
5. According to WON rights are given: substantive v. non-substantive
a. Substantive
 Deals with the substance of law
 i.e. creating or extinguishing the rights and duties
b. Non-Substantive (Remedial)
 Made to supply the defects in prior law
6. According to form; affirmative or negative
a. Affirmative
 Refers to law enacted in affirmative terms and does
not take away the common law
 Although it does not take away the common law, it
is nevertheless binding, and a party may make
his/her election to proceed upon the statute or
common law
b. Negative
 Legislative act expressed in negative terms and so
controls the common law, that it has no force in
opposition to the statute.
 Mandatory and must be presumed to have been
intended to repeal all conflicting statutes
7. According to WON there is a penal provision: penal v. non-penal
a. Penal
 Defines a criminal offense and prescribes its
corresponding fine, penalty, or punishment.
 Calls for a penalty
b. Non-penal
 Deals with offences and punishments of acts not of
criminal nature
ENACTMENT (HOW A BILL BECOMES A LAW)
1. Article VI, Section 1 of the 1987 Philippine Constitution
“The Legislative power shall be vested in the Congress of the
Philippines which shall consist of a Senate and a House of
Representatives, except the extent reserved to the people by the
provision on the initiative and referendum.”
o Legislative power is the power to make, alter and repeal
laws
2. Procedure (Section 24 – 27, Article VI Constitution)
a. A bill is a proposed legislative measure introduced by a member or
members of the Congress for enactment into law. It is signed by its
author/s and filed with the Secretary of the House. A bill may
originate from the lower or upper house
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 - EXCEPT appropriation, revenue or tariff bills, bills
authorizing increase of public debt, bills of local application,
and private bills, which shall originate in the House of
Representatives
b. First and Second Readings
- Secretary reports bill for first reading
- First Reading
- Reading the number and title of bill
- Referral to appropriate Committee for study and
recommendation
- Submits report for Second Reading
- Second Reading
- Copies are distributed
- Read with full amendments from the Committee
- Bill is subjected to debates, motions and amendments
- It is then voted and if approved, it will be submitted for
third reading for final vote by yeas and nays
- Third Reading
- Section 26 of Article VI
”No bill passed by either House shall become a law unless it
has passed three reading on separate days, and printed
copies thereof in its final form have been distributed to its
Members three 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.”
- “unless’” and “except” are coordinate clauses and should be
read I relation with the other
- Presidential certification of bills may not be subject to
judicial review
- Conference committee reports
- After approval by one House, the bill is transmitted to the
other House for concurrence
- If the House-approved version is compatible with that of the
Senate’s, the final version’s enrolled for is printed.
- If there are differences, a Bicameral Conference Committee
is called to reconcile conflicting provisions of both versions
from the both Houses.
- The Bicameral Committee submits report on the reconciled
version of the bill, duly approved by both chambers.
- The Senate then print the reconciled version in its enrolled
form
- Authentication of Bills
- Before a bill is sent to the President, the bill is authenticated
- Authentication is through the signing by the Speaker and
the Senate President of the printed copy of the approved
bill and certified by the respective secretaries of both
Houses
- President’s approval or veto
- A bill passed by Congress becomes a law in three ways:
 When the president signs it
 When the President does not sign or communicate
his veto of the bill within 30 days from receipt
thereof
 When the vetoed bill is repassed by Congress by 2/3
vote of all its members with each House voting
separately.
ENROLLED BILL DOCTRINE
- The final copy of a bill or joint resolution that has passed both
houses of a legislature, printed, certified as correct by the Secretary
of the Senate and the Secretary General of the House of
Representatives. After which, it will be signed by the Speaker of the
House and the Senate President
- Conclusive of its due to enactment
- Courts cannot go behind the enrolled act to discover what really
happened for doing so will impair the integrity of the legislative
process
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 - Legislative journals and the enrolled bill are both conclusive and if
there are discrepancies between the two, the latter as a rule
prevails over the former
- Speaker and Senate President may withdraw their respective
signatures if there is serious and substantial discrepancy between
the bill and the journal; the withdrawal renders the bill without
attestation and nullifies its status as an enrolled bill; the bill is no
longer accorded absolute verity as regards its text and the entries in
the journal should be consulted; where the journal discloses that
substantial amendments were introduced and approved but were
not incorporated in the printed text sent to the President for
signature, the court can declare that the bill has not been duly
enacted and did not accordingly become a law
- (Casco v. Jimenez | Arroyo v. De Venecia | Astorga v. Villegas)
PARTS OF LAW
a. Title
 Shall follow the “single-subject rule”. This is
mandatory and a law enacted in violation is
declared unconstitutional
 The title of the bill is to be couched in a language
sufficient to notify the legislators and the public
concerned of the import of the single subject
thereof
 Section 26, Article VI Constitution
- Enacting Clause
 Written immediately after the clause
 States the authority by which the act is enacted
 E.g. “Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of
Representatives in Congress assembled…”
- Preamble
 A prefatory statement or explanation or a finding of
facts, reciting the purpose, reason, or occasion for
making the law
 Found after the enacting clause
- Purview or Body of the Statute
 Part which tells what the law is all about
 Should embrace only one subject matter
- Separability Clause
 Part of the statute which states if any provision of
the act is declared invalid, the remainder shall not
be affected thereby.
 A legislative expression
EFFECTIVITY
1. Publication requirement
Article 2 of the Civil Code
“Laws shall take effect after fifteen days following the
completion of their publication in the Official Gazette or in a
newspaper of general circulation, unless it is otherwise provided.”
- The term unless otherwise provided only refers to the
publication period and not the requirement of publication
- PUBLICATION IS AN INDISPENSIBLE REQUIREMENT
- Intended to enable people to be familiar with the statute
- No one shall be charged for non-observance or violation of
the statute until the publication requirement has elapsed
2. Prospective operation of laws
Article 4 of the Civil Code
“Laws shall have no retroactive effect, unless the contrary is
provided.”
o When a law can be given retroactive application:
o Law expressly provides for retroactivity.
o Law is curative or remedial.
- If the thing omitted or failed to be done, and which
constitutes the defect sought to be removed or
make harmless, is something which the legislature
might have dispensed with by previous statutes, it
may do so by subsequent ones.
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 o Law is procedural.
o Law is penal in character and favorable to the accused.
- Who is not a habitual criminal
- A person is deemed to be habitual delinquent if
within a period of ten years form the date of his
release or last conviction of the crime of serious or
less serious physical injuries, Robo, Hurto, Estafa or
falsification, he is found guilty of any said crimes a
third time offender or oftener
o Exception to exception
o A procedural law may not be applied retroactively if to do
so would work injustice or would involve intricate problems
of due process or impair the independence of the Court.
o Statutes that are substantive in nature may not operate
retroactively without somehow affecting previous or past
rights or obligations; hence, it should be given a strict and
prospective construction.
- Substantive law creates, defines or regulates rights
concerning life, liberty or property or the powers of
agencies or instrumentalities for the administration
of public affairs.
AMENDMENTS
1. Coverage: only specific provisions
 Amendment means the change or modification, by
addition, deletion, alteration, of a statute which survives
on its amended form.
 Effected by the enactment of an amendatory act modifying
or altering some provisions of the statute; expressly or
impliedly
 It shall take effect 15 days following its publication
o The legislature has the authority to amend, subject to
constitutional requirements, any existing law. This is part of
the legislative power to enact, alter and repeal laws.
o Legislative franchises to establish and operate public
utilities, may be altered or modified and shall be subject to
amendment, alteration or repeal by the Congress when the
common good so requires.
2. Form
a. EXPRESS: general rule
- Done by providing in the amendatory act that
specific sections or provisions of a statute are
amended as recited therein
b. AMENDMENT BY IMPLICATION: exception
- Presumed or favored
- A part of the prior statute embracing the same
subject as the later act may not be enforced
without nullifying the pertinent provision of the
latter, in which event, prior act is deemed amended
or modified to the extent of the repugnancy
3. Construction of Amendments
o Statute and amendment should be read together as a
whole.
o The amended act is regarded as if the statute has been
originally enacted in its amended form
o Provision of the original act not affected by the amendment
remain in force
o Provisions omitted in the amendment are repealed.
4. Operation of Amendments
a. Generally prospective
- Amendatory acts operates prospectively
b. Except express provision of retroactivity
- Every case of doubt in construing an amendment
will be resolved against retroactivity.
- An amendment may be construed to have
retroactive effect if and only if the law expressly
stated
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 c. Exception to exception: when vested rights are
impaired
- Even if the amendment provides that it will have an
effect retroactively, it will not be construed as such
if to do so will impair vested rights or the
obligations of a contract
- Right which have become vested under a statute
before its amendment may not be affected by such
amendment as the amendatory act should not be
applied retroactively as to nullify such rights
5. Effect of jurisdiction of courts
o Where a court originally obtains and exercises jurisdiction
pursuant to an existing law, such jurisdiction will not be
overturned and impaired by the subsequent amendment of
the law, unless express prohibitory words or words of
similar import are used.
o Jurisdiction of the case will remain to court who first
acquired it until the case is decided therein.
o A subsequent statute amending a prior act with the effect
of divesting the court of jurisdiction may not be construed
to operate to oust jurisdiction that has already attached
under the prior law, for it will be subversion of the juridical
process to take a cause from a court having jurisdiction
before its final decision is given.
6. Effect of nullity of prior or amendatory act
o The amendatory act, if complete by itself, will be considered
as original or independent act
o when an amendatory act is declared unconstitutional, it is
as if the amendment did not exist, and the original statute
before the attempted amendment remains unaffected and
in force.
REVISION AND CODIFICATION
 Construction to harmonize different provisions
The rule is that a code is enacted as a single, comprehensive statute and
is to be considered as such and not as a series of disconnected articles
or provisions.
o If there is an irreconcilable conflict between parts of
revised statute or code, that which is best in accord with the
general plan or, in the absence of circumstances upon
which to base a choice, that which is later in physical
position, being the latest expression of legislative will, will
prevail.
 Effect of omission of provision/s of the old laws
What is omitted is deemed repealed (general rule)
o A revision or codification is, by its very nature and purpose,
intended to be a complete enactment on the subject and an
expression of the whole law thereon, which thereby
indicates an intent on the part of the legislature to abrogate
those provisions of the old laws that are not reproduced in
the revised statute or code.
o Amendment by deletion of certain words or phrases in a
statute indicates that the legislature intended to change the
meaning of the statute, for the presumption is that the
legislature would not have made the deletion had the
intention been not to effect a change in its meaning.
o It shall then be construed differently from the original or
previous amendment
o “casus omisus pro omisso habendus est” the omission of a
person, object or thing from an enumeration must be held to
have been omitted intentionally
Revised statute provides otherwise (exception)
o This preceding rule does not apply where the intent, as
shown by the history of the enactment, is clear that the
amendment is precisely to plainly express the construction
of the act prior to its amendment because its language is
not sufficiently expressive of such construction.
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 Forms of Repeal
 Effect of change in phraseology
o The change in phraseology by amendment of a provision of the law
indicates a legislative intent to change the meaning of the provision
from that it originally had.
o Where the legislative history shows that a statute has undergone
several amendments, each amendment using different phraseology,
the deliberate selection of language differing from that of the
earlier act on the subject indicates that a change in meaning of the
law was intended, and courts should so construe that statute as to
reflect such change in meaning
REPEALS
Article 7 of the Civil Code of the Philippines
“Laws are repealed only by subsequent ones, and their violation or non-
observance shall not be excused by disuse, or custom or practice to the
contrary.
When the courts declare a law to be inconsistent with the Constitution, the
former shall be void and the latter shall govern.
Administrative or executive acts, orders and regulations shall be valid only
when they are not contrary to the laws or the Constitution.”
Repeal of a law is the legislative act of abrogating through a subsequent
law the effects of a previous statute or portions thereof.
Non-retroactive application:
- A repealing statute is intended to be retroactive but it will not be so
construed if it will impair vested rights or the obligations of
contract, or unsettle matters that had been legally done under old
law.
- Repealing statutes which are penal in nature are generally applied
retroactively if favorable to the accused, unless the contrary
appears or the accused is otherwise not entitled to the benefits of
the repealing act.
 Express Repeal
o Repeal which Is literally declared by a new law, either in
specific terms, as where the particular laws and provisions
are named and identified and declared to be repealed
 Implied Repeal
o a new law contains provisions contrary to or inconsistent
with those of a former without expressly repealing them
o proceeds on the premise that where a statute of later date
clearly reveals an intention on the part of the legislature to
abrogate a prior act on the subject, that intention must be
given effect.
o Presumption against implied repeal
- Before repeal by implication will be decreed, there
must be a sufficient revelation of the legislative
intent to repeal; the intention to repeal must be
clear and manifest; otherwise, the later act is to be
construed as a continuation of, and not a substitute
for, the first act and will continue to speak from the
time of the first enactment
o Categories of Implied Repeal
o Irreconcilable inconsistency between two new laws with
similar subject matter
- Takes place when the two statutes cover the same
subject matter
- They are inconsistent and incompatible with each
other that they cannot be reconciled or harmonized
- Both cannot be given effect that one law cannot be
enforced without nullifying the other.
*it is necessary for the earlier and later statutes be of the
same subject for if one is different from the other, the two
laws cannot stand together
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o Later law covers whole subject of earlier law and is clearly
intended as a substitute
- A new statute is intended to furnish the exclusive
rule on a certain subject, it repeals by implication
the old law on the same subject, or where a new
statute covers the whole subject matter of an old
law, whether it be in the forms of an amendment or
otherwise, is evidently intended to be a revision of
the old act, it repeals the old act by implication.
- The complete enactment on a subject matter,
intended as a substitute for the old statute, may be
regarded as the expression of the whole law
thereon, and operates as a repeal of the prior
statute, although the two statutes are repugnant.

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