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recent j uris p rud en ce
HELD:
The Senate Committees power of inquiry relative to PSR No. 455 has
been passed upon and upheld in the consolidated cases of In the Matter of the
Petition for Habeas Corpus of Camilo L. Sabio which cited Article VI, Section 21 of
the Constitution, as follows:
The Senate or the House of Representatives or any of its
respective committees may conduct inquiries in aid of legislation
in accordance with its duly published rules of procedure. The
rights of persons appearing in or affected by such inquiries shall
be respected.
The Court explained that such conferral of the legislative power of
inquiry upon any committee of Congress, in this case, the respondents Senate
Committees, must carry with it all powers necessary and proper for its effective
discharge. On this score, the Senate Committee cannot be said to have acted with
grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or in excess of jurisdiction when it
submitted Committee Resolution No. 312, given its constitutional mandate to
conduct legislative inquiries. Nor can the Senate Committee be faulted for doing
so on the very same day that the assailed resolution was submitted. The wide
latitude given to Congress with respect to these legislative inquiries has long been
settled, otherwise, Article VI, Section 21 would be rendered pointless.
JAMAR KULAYAN, et al. v. GOV. ABDUSAKUR TAN,
in his capacity as Governor of Sulu, et al.
G.R. No. 187298, 03 July 2012, EN BANC (Sereno, J.)
The calling-out powers contemplated under the Constitution is exclusive to the President.
An exercise by another official, even if he is the local chief executive, is ultra vires, and may not
be justified by the invocation of Section 465 of the Local Government Code.
Three members from the International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC) were kidnapped in the vicinity of the Provincial Capitol in Patikul, Sulu.
Andres Notter, Eugenio Vagni, and Marie Jean Lacaba, were purportedly inspecting
a water sanitation project for the Sulu Provincial Jail when they were seized by
three armed men who were later confirmed to be members of the Abu Sayyaf
Group (ASG). A Local Crisis Committee, later renamed Sulu Crisis Management
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Committee (Committee) was then formed to investigate the kidnapping incident.
The Committee convened under the leadership of respondent Abdusakur Mahail
Tan, the Provincial Governor of Sulu.
Governor Tan issued Proclamation No. 1, Series of 2009, declaring a state
of emergency in the province of Sulu. The Proclamation cited the kidnapping
incident as a ground for the said declaration, describing it as a terrorist act pursuant
to the Human Security Act (R.A. 9372). It also invoked Section 465 of the Local
Government Code of 1991 (R.A. 7160), which bestows on the Provincial Governor
the power to carry out emergency measures during man-made and natural disasters
and calamities, and to call upon the appropriate national law enforcement agencies
to suppress disorder and lawless violence. In the Proclamation, Tan called upon
the PNP and the Civilian Emergency Force (CEF) to set up checkpoints and
chokepoints, conduct general search and seizures including arrests, and other
actions necessary to ensure public safety.
Petitioners, Jamar Kulayan, et al. claimed that Proclamation No. 1-09 was
issued ultra vires, and thus null and void, for violating Sections 1 and 18, Article
VII of the Constitution, which grants the President sole authority to exercise
emergency powers and calling-out powers as the chief executive of the Republic
and commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
ISSUE:
Whether or not a governor can exercise the calling-out powers of a
President
HELD:
It has already been established that there is one repository of executive
powers, and that is the President of the Republic. This means that when Section
1, Article VII of the Constitution speaks of executive power, it is granted to the
President and no one else. Corollarily, it is only the President, as Executive, who
is authorized to exercise emergency powers as provided under Section 23, Article
VI, of the Constitution, as well as what became known as the calling-out powers
under Section 7, Article VII thereof.
While the President is still a civilian, Article II, Section 3 of the
Constitution mandates that civilian authority is, at all times, supreme over the
military, making the civilian president the nations supreme military leader. The
net effect of Article II, Section 3, when read with Article VII, Section 18, is that
