Macalintal v. COMELEC, G.R. No. 157013, 10 Jul 2003.

FACTS:

Macalintal, a member of the Philippine Bar, seek... declaration that

FACTS:
certain provisions of Republic Act No. 9189 (The Overseas Absentee
Before the Court is a petition for certiorari and prohibition filed by
Voting Act of 2003)... suffer from constitutional infirmity.
Romulo B. Macalintal, a member of the Philippine Bar, seeking a
declaration that certain provisions of Republic Act No. 9189 (The R.A. No. 9189, entitled, "An Act Providing for A System of Overseas
Overseas Absentee Voting Act of 2003) suffer from constitutional Absentee Voting by Qualified Citizens of the Philippines Abroad,
infirmity. Claiming that he has actual and material legal interest in Appropriating Funds Therefor, and for Other Purposes," appropriates
the subject matter of this case in seeing to it that public funds are funds under Section 29 thereof which provides that a supplemental...
properly and lawfully used and appropriated, petitioner filed the budget on the General Appropriations Act of the year of its
instant petition as a taxpayer and as a lawyer. enactment into law shall provide for the necessary amount to carry
out its provisions. Taxpayers, such as herein petitioner, have the right
ISSUES: to restrain officials from wasting public funds through the
enforcement of an... unconstitutional statute.
(1) Whether or not Section 5(d) of Republic Act No. 9189 violates the
residency requirement in Section 1 of Article V of the Constitution. The challenged provision of law involves a public right that affects a
(2) Whether or not Section 18.5 of the same law violates the great number of citizens. The Court has adopted the policy of taking
constitutional mandate under Section 4, Article VII of the jurisdiction over cases whenever the petitioner has seriously and
Constitution that the winning candidates for President and the convincingly presented an issue of transcendental significance to the
Vice-President shall be proclaimed as winners by Congress. Filipino people.
(3) Whether or not Congress may, through the Joint Congressional he need to consider the constitutional issues raised before the Court
Oversight Committee created in Section 25 of Rep. Act No. 9189, is... buttressed by the fact that it is now more than fifteen years since
exercise the power to review, revise, amend, and approve the the ratification of the 1987 Constitution requiring Congress to
Implementing Rules and Regulations that the Commission on provide a system for absentee voting by qualified Filipinos... abroad.
Elections, promulgate without violating the independence of the
COMELEC under Section 1, Article IX-A of the Constitution. Thus, strong reasons of public policy demand that the Court resolves
the instant petition... and determine whether Congress has acted
HELD: within the limits of the Constitution or if it had gravely abused the
discretion entrusted to it.
(1) No. Section 5 of RA No. 9189 enumerates those who are
Petitioner posits that Section 5(d) is unconstitutional because it
disqualified voting under this Act. It disqualifies an immigrant or a
violates Section 1, Article V of the 1987 Constitution which requires
permanent resident who is recognized as such in the host country.
that the voter must be a resident in the Philippines for at least one
However, an exception is provided i.e. unless he/she executes, upon
registration, an affidavit prepared for the purpose by the Commission
declaring that he/she shall resume actual physical permanent year and in the place where he proposes to vote for at least six...
residence in the Philippines not later than 3 years from approval of months immediately preceding an election.
registration. Such affidavit shall also state that he/she has not He claims that the right of suffrage... should not be granted to
applied for citizenship in another country. Failure to return shall be anyone who, on the date of the election, does not possess the
cause for the removal of the name of the immigrant or permanent qualifications provided for by Section 1, Article V of the Constitution.
resident from the National Registry of Absentee Voters and his/her
Issues:
permanent disqualification to vote in absentia.
Does Section 5(d) of Rep. Act No. 9189 allowing the registration of
Petitioner claims that this is violative of the residency requirement in voters who are immigrants or permanent residents in other
Section 1 Article V of the Constitution which requires the voter must countries... by their mere act of executing an affidavit expressing
be a resident in the Philippines for at least one yr, and a resident in their intention to return to the Philippines, violate the residency
the place where he proposes to vote for at least 6 months requirement in
immediately preceding an election.
Section 1 of Article V of the Constitution?
However, OSG held that ruling in said case does not hold water at Ruling:
present, and that the Court may have to discard that particular ruling.
Panacea of the controversy: Affidavit for without it, the presumption R.A. No. 9189 was enacted in obeisance to the mandate of the first
of abandonment of Phil domicile shall remain. The qualified Filipino paragraph of Section 2, Article V of the Constitution that Congress
abroad who executed an affidavit is deemed to have retained his shall provide a system for voting by qualified Filipinos abroad.
domicile in the Philippines and presumed not to have lost his
It must be stressed that Section 2 does not provide for the
domicile by his physical absence from this country. Section 5 of RA
parameters of... the exercise of legislative authority in enacting said
No. 9189 does not only require the promise to resume actual
law. Hence, in the absence of restrictions, Congress is presumed to
physical permanent residence in the Philippines not later than 3
have duly exercised its function as defined in Article VI (The
years after approval of registration but it also requires the Filipino
Legislative Department) of the Constitution.
abroad, WON he is a green card holder, a temporary visitor or even on
business trip, must declare that he/she has not applied for Such statutes are regarded as conferring a privilege and not a right,
citizenship in another country. Thus, he/she must return to the or an absolute right. When the legislature chooses to grant the right
Philippines otherwise consequences will be met according to RA No. by statute, it must operate with equality among all the class to which
9189. it is granted; but statutes of this nature may be limited in... their
application to particular types of elections. The statutes should be
Although there is a possibility that the Filipino will not return after he construed in the light of any constitutional provisions affecting
has exercised his right to vote, the Court is not in a position to rule on registration and elections, and with due regard to their texts prior to
the wisdom of the law or to repeal or modify it if such law is found to amendment and to predecessor statutes and... the decisions
be impractical. However, it can be said that the Congress itself was
conscious of this probability and provided for deterrence which is thereunder; they should also be construed in the light of the
that the Filipino who fails to return as promised stands to lose his circumstances under which they were enacted; and so as to carry out
right of suffrage. Accordingly, the votes he cast shall not be the objects thereof, if this can be done without doing violence to their
invalidated because he was qualified to vote on the date of the provisions and mandates. Further, in passing on... statutes regulating
elections. absentee voting, the court should look to the whole and every part of
the election laws, the intent of the entire plan, and reasons and spirit
of their adoption, and try to give effect to every portion thereof.
Expressum facit cessare tacitum: where a law sets down plainly its
whole meaning, the Court is prevented from making it mean what the Ordinarily, an absentee is not a resident and vice versa; a person
Court pleases. In fine, considering that underlying intent of the cannot be at the same time, both a resident and an absentee.[30]
Constitution, as is evident in its statutory construction and intent of However, under our election laws and the countless pronouncements
the framers, which is to grant Filipino immigrants and permanent of the Court pertaining to elections, an absentee... remains attached
residents abroad the unquestionable right to exercise the right of to his residence in the Philippines as residence is considered
suffrage (Section 1 Article V) the Court finds that Section 5 of RA No. synonymous with domicile.
9189 is not constitutionally defective.
For political purposes the concepts of residence and domicile are
dictated by the peculiar criteria of political laws. As these concepts
(2) Yes. Congress should not have allowed COMELEC to usurp a
have evolved in our election law, what has clearly and unequivocally
power that constitutionally belongs to it. The canvassing of the votes
emerged is the fact that residence for election purposes... is used
and the proclamation of the winning candidates for President and
synonymously with domicile.
Vice President for the entire nation must remain in the hands of
Congress as its duty and power under Section 4 of Article VII of the Thus, the Constitutional Commission recognized the fact that while
Constitution. COMELEC has the authority to proclaim the winning millions of Filipinos reside abroad principally for economic reasons
candidates only for Senators and Party-list Reps. and hence they contribute in no small measure to the economic
uplift of this country, their voices are marginal insofar as the choice
(3) No. By vesting itself with the powers to approve, review, amend of... this country's leaders is concerned.
and revise the Implementing Rules & Regulations for RA No. 9189,
Congress went beyond the scope of its constitutional authority. It is in pursuance of that intention that the Commission provided for
Congress trampled upon the constitutional mandate of Section 2 immediately after the residency requirement of Section 1.
independence of the COMELEC. Under such a situation, the Court is By the doctrine of necessary implication in statutory construction,
left with no option but to withdraw from its usual silence in declaring which may be applied in construing constitutional... provisions,... the
a provision of law unconstitutional. strategic location of Section 2 indicates that the Constitutional
Commission provided for an exception to the actual residency
requirement of Section 1 with respect to qualified Filipinos abroad.
The same Commission has in... effect declared that qualified
Filipinos who are not in the Philippines may be allowed to vote even not otherwise disqualified by law, who has not relinquished Philippine
though they do not satisfy the residency requirement in Section 1, citizenship and who has not actually abandoned his/her... intentions
Article V of the Constitution. to return to his/her domicile of origin, the Philippines, is allowed to
register and vote in the Philippine embassy, consulate or other
Contrary to the claim of petitioner, the execution of the affidavit itself
foreign service establishments of the place which has jurisdiction
is not the enabling or enfranchising act. The affidavit required in
over the country where he/she has indicated his/her address for...
Section 5(d) is not only proof of the intention of the immigrant or
purposes of the elections, while providing for safeguards to a clean
permanent resident to go back and resume residency in the
election.
Philippines, but more significantly, it serves as an explicit expression
that he had not in fact abandoned his domicile of origin. Thus, it is
not correct to say that the execution of the affidavit under Section
5(d) violates the Constitution that proscribes "provisional...
registration or a promise by a voter to perform a condition to be
qualified to vote in a political exercise."

To repeat, the affidavit is required of immigrants and permanent

residents abroad because by their status in their host countries, they
are presumed to have relinquished their intent to return to this
country; thus, without the affidavit, the presumption of abandonment
of

Philippine domicile shall remain.

It must be emphasized that Section 5(d) does not only require an

affidavit or a promise to "resume actual physical permanent
residence in the Philippines not later than three years from approval
of his/her registration," the Filipinos abroad must also declare that
they have... not applied for citizenship in another country. Thus, they
must return to the Philippines; otherwise, their failure to return "shall
be cause for the removal" of their names "from the National Registry
of Absentee Voters and his/her permanent disqualification to vote
in... absentia."

Thus, Congress crafted a process of registration by which a Filipino

voter permanently residing abroad who is at least eighteen years old,