H5 - Macalintal v. Presidential Electoral Tribunal

MACALINTAL vs PRESIDENTIAL ELECTORAL TRIBUNAL
Facts:
Petitioner Atty. Romulo B. Macalintal, through a Motion for Reconsideration reiterates his arguments that
Section 4, Article VII of the Constitution does not provide for the creation of the Presidential Electoral
Tribunal (PET) and that the PET violates Section 12, Article VIII of the Constitution. In order to strengthen
his position, petitioner cites the concurring opinion of Justice Teresita J. Leonardo-de Castro in Barok C.
Biraogo v. The Philippine Truth Commission of 2010 that the Philippine Truth Commission (PTC) is a
public office which cannot be created by the president, the power to do so being lodged exclusively with
Congress. Thus, petitioner submits that if the President, as head of the Executive Department, cannot
create the PTC, the Supreme Court, likewise, cannot create the PET in the absence of an act of
legislature.
Issue:
Whether or not the creation of the Presidential Electoral Tribunal is Constitutional.
Held:
Yes, the creation of the Presidential Electoral Tribunal is constitutional. Judicial power granted to the
Supreme Court by the same Constitution is plenary. And under the doctrine of necessary implication, the
additional jurisdiction bestowed by the last paragraph of Section 4, Article VII of the Constitution to decide
presidential and vice-presidential elections contests includes the means necessary to carry it into effect.
The traditional grant of judicial power is found in Section 1, Article VIII of the Constitution which provides
that the power "shall be vested in one Supreme Court and in such lower courts as may be established by
law." Consistent with our presidential system of government, the function of "dealing with the settlement
of disputes, controversies or conflicts involving rights, duties or prerogatives that are legally demandable
and enforceable" is apportioned to courts of justice. With the advent of the 1987 Constitution, judicial
power was expanded to include "the duty of the courts of justice to settle actual controversies involving
rights which are legally demandable and enforceable, and to determine whether or not there has been a
grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction on the part of any branch or
instrumentality of the Government." The power was expanded, but it remained absolute.
Atty. Romulo B. Macalintal is going to town under the misplaced assumption that the text of the provision
itself was the only basis for this Court to sustain the PET’s constitutionality. The Court reiterates that the
PET is authorized by the last paragraph of Section 4, Article VII of the Constitution and as supported by
the discussions of the Members of the Constitutional Commission, which drafted the present Constitution.
The explicit reference by the framers of our Constitution to constitutionalizing what was merely statutory
before is not diluted by the absence of a phrase, line or word, mandating the Supreme Court to create a
Presidential Electoral Tribunal.
Suffice it to state that the Constitution, verbose as it already is, cannot contain the specific wording
required by petitioner in order for him to accept the constitutionality of the PET. The set up embodied in
the Constitution and statutes characterizes the resolution of electoral contests as essentially an exercise
of judicial power. At the barangay and municipal levels, original and exclusive jurisdiction over election
contests is vested in the municipal or metropolitan trial courts and the regional trial courts, respectively.
At the higher levels - city, provincial, and regional, as well as congressional and senatorial - exclusive and
original jurisdiction is lodged in the COMELEC and in the House of Representatives and Senate Electoral
Tribunals, which are not, strictly and literally speaking, courts of law. Although not courts of law, they are,
nonetheless, empowered to resolve election contests which involve, in essence, an exercise of judicial
power, because of the explicit constitutional empowerment found in Section 2(2), Article IX-C (for the
COMELEC) and Section 17, Article VI (for the Senate and House Electoral Tribunals) of the Constitution.
Besides, when the COMELEC, the HRET, and the SET decide election contests, their decisions are still
subject to judicial review - via a petition for certiorari filed by the proper party - if there is a showing that
the decision was rendered with grave abuse of discretion tantamount to lack or excess of jurisdiction.
It is also beyond cavil that when the Supreme Court, as PET, resolves a presidential or vice-presidential
election contest, it performs what is essentially a judicial power. In the landmark case of Angara v.
Electoral Commission, Justice Jose P. Laurel enucleated that "it would be inconceivable if the
Constitution had not provided for a mechanism by which to direct the course of government along
constitutional channels." In fact, Angara pointed out that "[t]he Constitution is a definition of the powers of
government." And yet, at that time, the 1935 Constitution did not contain the expanded definition of
judicial power found in Article VIII, Section 1, paragraph 2 of the present Constitution.
With the explicit provision, the present Constitution has allocated to the Supreme Court, in conjunction
with latter's exercise of judicial power inherent in all courts, the task of deciding presidential and vice-
presidential election contests, with full authority in the exercise thereof. The power wielded by PET is a
derivative of the plenary judicial power allocated to courts of law, expressly provided in the Constitution.
On the whole, the Constitution draws a thin, but, nevertheless, distinct line between the PET and the
Supreme Court.
If the logic of petitioner is to be followed, all Members of the Court, sitting in the Senate and House
Electoral Tribunals would violate the constitutional proscription found in Section 12, Article VIII. Surely,
the petitioner will be among the first to acknowledge that this is not so. The Constitution which, in Section
17, Article VI, explicitly provides that three Supreme Court Justices shall sit in the Senate and House
Electoral Tribunals, respectively, effectively exempts the Justices-Members thereof from the prohibition in
Section 12, Article VIII. In the same vein, it is the Constitution itself, in Section 4, Article VII, which
exempts the Members of the Court, constituting the PET, from the same prohibition.
We have previously declared that the PET is not simply an agency to which Members of the Court were
designated. Once again, the PET, as intended by the framers of the Constitution, is to be an institution
independent, but not separate, from the judicial department, i.e., the Supreme Court. McCulloch v. State
of Maryland proclaimed that "[a] power without the means to use it, is a nullity. The vehicle for the
exercise of this power, as intended by the Constitution and specifically mentioned by the Constitutional
Commissioners during the discussions on the grant of power to this Court, is the PET. Thus, a
microscopic view, like the petitioner's, should not constrict an absolute and constitutional grant of judicial
power. Finally, petitioner’s application of the Court’s decision in Biraogo v. Philippine Truth Commission to
the present case is an unmitigated quantum leap.
The decision therein held that the Philippine Truth Commission (PTC) “finds justification under Section
17, Article VII of the Constitution.” A plain reading of the constitutional provisions, i.e., last paragraph of
Section 4 and Section 17, both of Article VII on the Executive Branch, reveals that the two are differently
worded and deal with separate powers of the Executive and the Judicial Branches of government. And as
previously adverted to, the basis for the constitution of the PET was, in fact, mentioned in the
deliberations of the Members of the Constitutional Commission during the drafting of the present
Constitution.

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MACALINTAL vs PRESIDENTIAL ELECTORAL TRIBUNAL

Whether or not the creation of the Presidential Electoral Tribunal is Constitutional.

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