[Music] hello mccaddy hello world this is attorney angel and i'm your legal angel hi my fellow angels i hope you're all doing well this is part two of the rules on specific statutes enjoy listening so let us proceed let us start with the rules of court the rules of court is part of procedural law or remedial law or adjective if you remember in the early parts of our classes we discussed about the different kinds of laws and we touched on substantive law and procedural law or otherwise known as adjective law so we said that substantive law are those that tell us what our rights and duties are while remedial procedural or adjective law tell us how to enforce our rights they provide remedies procedures on how to address our grievances as to the rule of construction with respect to the rules of court or remedial law procedural law or adjective law they shall be liberally construed in order to promote the objective of securing a just speedy and inexpensive disposition of every action and proceedings this rule has been used by the supreme court not only in respect of the construction of the provisions of the rules of court but also in applying clear provisions of the rules of court with leniency or in other words to excuse technical compliance with procedural requirements of terminal support for example in the case of oca versus garo oka stands for office of the court administrator the issue before the court hears whether or not the period for fighting an appeal has lapsed so this is a technical rule and the filing of an appeal period of filing an appeal here in the here the supreme court said that rules prescribing the time within which certain acts must be done as certain proceedings taken are absolutely indispensable to the prevention of needless delays and the orderly and speedy discharge of judicial business strict compliance with such rules is mandatory and imperative nevertheless the procedural rules were conceived to aid the attainment of trustees that is a very important risk attainment of justice or as i recall in one of my legal aid cases when i attended the hearing in manila the regional trial court forgot the branch number he says this was uh this is the court decided by judge medina i was supposed to proceed with free trial after the arraignment of my client my client was the accused but at that point i was not able to confer yet with my client so i pleaded before judge medina to allow me to proceed with the pre-trial at the next setting or the next hearing okay as you know under the continuous trial rule the arrangement and the pre-trial are already in one setting or one hearing but because i did not want to prejudice my client because i have i have not confirmed conferred with my client so i asked the judge i can proceed with the free trial at the next setting or the next okay technically i could have not i i i technically the judge would have not allowed me but the judge very compassionate and level-headed josh medina said that in the interest of justice and if there is no position on the part of the prosecutor then i can proceed with the free trial at the next hearing going back so pursuant to this under rule 1 section 6 of the 1997 rules of procedure it is stated that these rules shall be liberally construed in order to promote their objective of securing a just speedy and inexpensive disposition of every action and proceeding okay also in another case which i was not able to provide in this slide in the case of gold blue properties versus court of appeals the card um also held that where a rigid application of the rule will result in a manifest failure or miscourage of justice then the rule may be relaxed especially if a party successfully shows that the alleged effect in the question final and executory judgment is not apparent on its face or from the recitals contain their technicalities may thus be disregarded in order to resolve the case after all no party can even claim a vested right in technicalities litigation should as much as possible he decided on the merits and not on technicalities but do not mistake that the court is not strict when it comes to the rules okay so in another case a case of goke versus ce the court held that technical rules of procedure are not to be ignored thus the supreme court stated that to merit liberality the one seeking such treatment must show reasonable cause justifying its non-compliance with the rules and must establish that the outright dismissal of the petition would defeat the administration of substantial justice procedural rules must at all times be followed save for instances when a litigant must be rescued from an injustice far greater than the degree of his carelessness in not complying with a prescribed procedure okay this reminds me if you were able to follow attorney tranquil salvador he conducted a lecture about the rules and civil procedure and uh the new rules on evidence i was able to listen to his webinar with respect to the rules of civil procedure okay so under the new rules of civil procedure the court is strict with respect to extension okay filing in the extension of time for finding certainty beings so i was able to catch him say that under the new rules of civil procedure the parties are entitled only to one extension of 30 days and that the court already provided certain periods of time for provide for filing certain kinds of readings like for example you are given 15 days to file your reply 20 days for filing of an answer to counter claims 15 days for filing of supplemental complaint and 30 days for amendment but that amendment must be amended as a matter of fact now we move on to adoption statutes these are laws on adoption or adoption statutes or adoption laws okay why is it important adoption laws are important because it does not merely establish paternity and affiliation but it raises the level of a child from a legitimate to a legitimate status okay so the rule when it comes to adoption loss or loss and adoption adoption statutes is that they should be liberally construed in favor of the child to be adopted or the adoptee in order to promote the noble objectives of the law and as we said the noble objectives of the law establish paternity creation and endow a child with legitimate status but if you put it in simple terms it is simply the best interest of the child for example in the case of the adoption of stephanie estoriga garcia here in this case the supreme court allowed the legitimate child who was adopted by her natural father to use her natural mother's journey as medoni but there is no law allowing that so here in this case the supreme court allowed that and it stated that the policy that adoption statutes the inhumane and sanitary nature are to be liberally construed on account of the benefits and purposes of adoption and that the interest and welfare of the adopted child should be primary in paramount consideration and every reasonable intended should be sustained to promote and fulfill the noble and compassionate objectives of adoption statutes now we move on to local statues statutes issued by the local government and also pertaining to local economy so when we see local statutes these are statues the operation of which is confined within certain territorial limits and applies to political subdivisions of the state or to property or persons of a limited portion of the state you all know that political subdivisions are composed of local government units in the philippines from the provinces cities municipalities down to the barangays and now we see them in action they are very very active now especially in these kinds of crisis this time of the pandemic which they are on the front line so legal basis under the constitution we have two relevant articles two relevant sections article 10 section 2 in article 2 section 25 of the 1987 constitution okay so let's go first to article 10 section 2 of the 1987 constitution here it is provided that territorial and political subdivisions of the philippines shall enjoy local autonomy the territorial and political subdivisions are comprised of provinces cities municipalities and burundi i have mentioned earlier the 1987 constitution and other in article 2 section 25 guarantees the autonomy of these local government units okay another legal basis section 5 of re716t otherwise known as the local government code there are rules of interpretation stated in section 5. the first is that any provision on the power of a local government unit sorry for the typo error shall be liberally interpreted in its favor and in case of doubt any question thereon shall be resolved in favor of the evolution of powers and of the lg when you go to the law and public corporations you will often hear the word devolution aside from that it's twin it's twin term or word decentralization next in case of doubt any tax ordinance or revenue measure shall be construed strictly against the lg enacting it and liberally in favor of the taxpayer any tax exemption incentive or relief granted by any lg you shall be construed strictly against the person claiming so we already took this off when we discussed about the rules of construction for tax statutes okay and third the general welfare provisions of the local government code shall be liberally interpreted to give more powers to the lg's in accelerating economic development and upgrading the quality of life of the people in the community and statutory construction where a law is capable of two interpretations one in favor of the centralized power of the national government and the other beneficial to local autonomy the rule of construction is that the skills must tilt in favor of the labor meaning skills must build in favor of local autonomy so in the case of san juan versus the csc or civil service commission this is about the appointment of a budget officer and lg in this case the lg is at one the particular provision of law in contention is section 1 of e0112 okay let me read to you that particular section of the e0112 states that all budget officers of provinces cities municipalities shall be appointed henceforth by the minister of budget and management upon recommendation of the local chief executive council local chief executive referring to the mayor subject to civil service law rules and regulations and they shall be placed under the administrative control in technical supervision of the ministry of budget and management so here the supreme court held that the phrase upon recommendation of the local chief executive concern is part and parcel of the appointment process and is a mandatory requirement okay so the budget and management ministry cannot appoint a budget officer who is not recommended by the local chief executive or the mayor so this must be satisfied this requirement must be satisfied even if the first person recommended by the mayor fell short of the requirement it will go through that process but it should be recommended by the local chief executive order okay we've now come to the last part of part two which is on the constitution or specifically constitutional construction okay um for constitution for this discussion let us look at two perspectives the first perspective is a constitution with respect to other statutes or laws and the other perspective is with respect to the constitutional provisions themselves so to proceed we all know that the constitution is the fundamental law of the land it's the organic law of the land okay and we learned in our previous classes with respect to the hierarchy of loss behind the one that occupies the highest position in the hierarchy of loss is the constitution so that with respect to statutes the presumption is always in favor of the constitutionality of a statute because all law should be in accord with a constitution so otherwise if the statute is held to be unconstitutional what is the effect the fact is that there is no law that compares no rights it imposes no duties and it affords no protection and it creates no office there is also another view that even if the statute is held as is held to be unconstitutional it is nevertheless considered a legislative act because it passed through the process of legislation but these are commonly spoken of as boeing so with the constitutional provisions itself the supreme court adopted three basic principles of statutory construction in the interpretation of the constitution and you are familiar with them especially when we discuss about the latin maxims okay verbal edges or the plain meaning rule racial edges or the racial edges esta nima the spirit of the law and the interpretation of the constitution as a whole or utmages so just a review you know that verbally is the rule that whenever possible the words in the constitution must be given to our ordinary meaning except where technical terms are employed and then ratio alleges esta nima whenever there is ambiguity the words of the constitution should be interpreted in accordance with the intent of its framers okay do you remember the case of nitapan vs cir it was held in that case that a certain amount of that intent is bought in keeping with the fundamental principle of constitutional construction that the intent of the framers of the organic law referring to the constitution and of the people adopting it should be given effects okay and as we said put majestic the constitution is to be interpreted as a whole to further explain you know the landmark case of civil liberties union versus executive secretary so this case um told us that no one provision of the constitution is to be separated from all the others the interpretation as a whole yes provided by utmages okay so in this case it was held that it is a well-established ruling constitutional construction that no one provision of the constitution is to be separated from all the others to be considered alone but that all the provisions bearing upon a particular subject are brought into the view and to be so interpreted as to effectuate the great purposes of the instruments electrons bearing on a particular subject should be considered and interpreted together as to effectuate the whole purpose of the constitution and one section is not to be allowed to defeat another if by any unreasonable if by any reasonable construction the tool can be made to stand together for simply put the part must harmonize all these provisions if practicable and it must be in favor of a construction which will render every word operative rather than one which will make the words idle and mogatori so here we have other considerations contemporaneous construction and aids that are external to the text may be resorted to when the text is capable of multiple or viable meanings a speaking about contemporaneous construction contemporaneous construction is connected to contemporary circumstances contemporaneous and practical construction as well okay so when you say contemporary circumstances these are part of extrinsic aids those which are external to the letter follow okay so when you see contemporary circumstances these are conditions existing at the time that the law was enacted like for example the history of the times or the conditions of the times when the law was enacted or the previous state of the law or evil sought to be remedied or corrected by the law and the customs or usages customs or usages of the people back then so the one interpreting the law should place itself in that position in circumstances um so to understand the words used in question and to be able to feel the atmosphere back then and the reasons why the law was enacted so contemporaneous and practical construction is connected to that because these are though um the contemporaneous and practical construction uh tell us that those who lived at or near the time when the law was passed were more acquainted of the conditions and the reasons why the law was why that particular law was enacted so their understanding and application of the law um especially the same has been this uh has been continued and agreed upon or acquiesced by the judicial tribunals and the legal profession deserve to be considered by the parties with respect to the question of whether or not the provisions of the constitution are self-executing or non-self-executing or whether not the provision of the constitution is executed or self-executor nonself-executory okay the general rule is that the professions of the constitution are intended to be self-executing i know you're also familiar with this case of fosa versus fakhoran landmark case we're in the provisions and contention are articles uh sections 15 and 16 of articles of the 1987 constitution okay just to refresh your memory definitely to you on the particular sections section 15 article 2 1987 constitution the state shall protect and promote the right to health of the people and instill health consciousness among them section 16 the stage shall protect and advance the right of the people to a balanced and healthful ecology enacted with a rhythm in harmony of nature okay so it was held by the court that the right of the people to a balance and healthful ecology under article 2 sections 15 and 16 carry the correlative duty to refrain from impairing the environment and this includes the judicious management and conservation of the country's forests so while the court did not express history that the said provisions are self-executing by its holding the implication is that the opposite provisions sections 15 and 16 the four difficult of the 1987 constitution can be valid sources of rights which may be enforced by the courts so justice feliciano conquered with a majority opinion and he noted that as a matter of logic by finding petitioners cause of action as anchored on the legal right comprised in the constitutional statements the court in effect said that article sections 15 and 16 are self-executing and are judicially enforceable even in their present form so the doctrine of self-executor self-executing provisions of the constitution was also expressed was expressly laid down in the case of manila prince hotel corporation versus gsis okay i know you're familiar with this case because i assigned this case to you this was about the manila hotel being put up for sale and all opened by gsis to bidders 30 to 50 uh of the shares in manila hotel were up for bid so in this case you remember that manila prince hotel corporation or mpht was one of the bidders and the other bidder was renowned berhad which is a malaysian corporation in which gsisp worked very number time because it had a higher bid than mphc but um money mphc uh wrote to gsis and matched a bit of friend in random perhaps okay but gsis refused to accept the match bid of mpht so mphc filed a petition before the supreme court for prohibition in mandamus so the the article in contention here particular article of the 1987 constitution it's article 12 section 10. okay if you remember this article is with respect to the filipino first policy so the issue is whether or not article 12 section 10 of the 1987 constitution is self-executing if you remember gsis argued that the second paragraph of article 12 of section 10 is merely a statement of the principle and policy since it is not self-executing and requires legislation but the supreme court ruled otherwise the supreme court ruled that unless it is expressly provided that a legislative act is necessary to enforce a constitutional mandate the presumption is that all provisions of the constitution are self-executing if the constitutional provisions are treated as requiring legislation instead of self-executing the legislature would would have the power to ignore and practically nullify the mandate of the fundamental so the prevailing view is that in case of doubt the constitution should be considered self-executing rather than non-self-executing unless the country is intended and the provision of the constitution should be considered self-executing okay so if you notice in opposite versus factoring it was nearly implied but in mphc which is a later case in apostle versus factoring it was expressly stated in the decision of the supreme court that constitutional provisions are self-executing rather than non-self-executing unless the contrary is intended so that's it for part two of this lecture on the rules of construction for specific laws or statutes and constitutional construction so if you want to read more about these topics my sources are of course as i told you in our class our reference books are statutory construction concepts and cases by bernie june pilares and statutory construction by attorney hollander suarez thank you very much i hope you were able to take down notes and i hope you learned something from our lecture so always remember to glorify god with a grateful heart stay safe be happy thank you very much for listening like subscribe share and follow glorify god with a grateful heart this is attorney angel and i'm your legal angel