MARIANO v.

COMELEC
- R.A. 7854 An Act Converting the Municipality of Makati into a Highly
Urbanized City to be known as City of Makati
- Petition for prohibition and declaratory relief, R.A. 7854 as unconstitutional
- R.A. 7854 Sec. 2, 51, and 52 are unconstitutional:
o Section 2: did not properly identify the land area or territorial
jurisdiction of Makati in metes and bounds (violation of Sec. 10, Art.
10 of the Constitution)
Local Government Code requires that the area of a municipality
be described by metes and bounds with technical descriptions.
It is not an end in itself but a tool
This means that as long as the territorial jurisdiction of a
municipality can be ascertained, the legislative intent has been
served
R.A. 7854 did not add, subtract, divide or multiplied or
established a new land area did not change even a land area
of Makati City
It shall comprise the present territory of the municipality
It was not defined in R.A. 7854 because at the time of the
creation of the law, there was a dispute between Makati and
Taguig over Fort Bonifacio unsettled boundary dispute
o Section 51: attempts to alter the 3-consecutive term limit for local
officials, violation of Sec. 8, Art. 10 and Sec. 7, Art. 6

- Sec 52: INCREASED THE LEGISLATIVE DISTRICT OF MAKATI BY A SPECIAL
LAW
Section 52 stated that Makati shall have at least 2 districts
Unconstitutional because: 1. Reapportionment cannot be done
by special law; 2. The reapportionment of legislative district is
not part of the title of the bill; 3. Makatis population as of 1990
is only at 450k.
Held
- As settled in Tobias v. Abalos, the reapportionment of legislative districts can
be made through a special law
o Congress was not precluded in increasing its members via special law,
different from the general reapportionment law. THIS can be related
to what was done for R.A 7854 in providing an increase in Makatis
legislative district. IF THE LAW WILL PRECLUDE THE SPECIAL LAWS,
a certain legislative district can be left unrepresented over an
indeterminate period of time, which is a subtraction of Sovereignty.
- Legislative district may still be increased even if its only 450k because it
meets the minimum 250k requirement
o Section 3 of the Ordinance appended to the Constitution provided that
a city whose population has increased more than 250k shall be
entitled to AT LEAST one Congressional Representative
 - As discussed in Tobias v. Abalos, the Constitution does not command that the
title of the law should completely mirror all its details. A general subject and
statement of the provisions that are germane to such general subject is
sufficient compliance
- Dismissed for lack of merit, no costs

SEMA v. COMELEC
- the province of Maguindanao is a part of ARMM

MONTEJO v. COMELEC
-

HERRERA v. COMELEC
- Petition for certiorari to annul and set aside Resolution No. 2950 created by
COMELEC on the adjustments of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan and
Panglunsod seats
- Dividing the Province of Guimaras into two provincial districts and the
apportioning of 8 Sanggunian Panlalawigan seats
- San Lorenzo and Sibunag was added as municipalities then the Province of
Guimaras was divided into two provincial districts, they requested this to the
COMELEC
- Secret balloting headed by the Provincial Election Supervisor:
o Jordan Buenavista and San Diego
o Jordan, Nueva Valencia and Sibunag
- Bureau of Local Government Finance of the Department of Finance
RECLASSIFIED several provinces Province of Guimaras, from fifth class to
fourth class province
- Reclasification, COMELEC made Resolution no. 2950 which allotted 8
Sanggunian Panlalawigan seats:
o 1st district with 56, 210 3 seats (Buenavista and San Lorenzo)
o 2nd district with 70,252 5 seats (Jordan, Nueva Valencia, and
Sibunag)
- Petitioners say:
o The district does not comprise a compact, contiguous, and adjacent
area
o The consultative meeting did not express the true sentiments of
voters in the province
o Two districts for the province is not equitable
o Disparity in the ratio of the number of voters that a Board Member
represents
- Petitioners suggests that Buenavista + Jordan, then Nueva Valencia, Sibunag,
San Lorenzo be together to constitute 4 seats each. One board member per
15,696 people
- R.A. 6636 allotment of elective members to provinces must be made on the
basis of its clarification as a province or municipality.
 o Section 4: First and second class shall have 10 elective members, third
and fourth should have 8, and fifth and sixth should have 6 elected at
large.
- R.A. 7166: provinces who only have one district shall divide them into two
districts for the purpose of electing the members of Sangguniang
Panlalawigan
o The number of INHIBITANTS and not the registered voters
- Comelec also promulgated resolution No. 2131

SAMSON v. COMELEC
- In Feb. 1998, President Ramos signed into law R.A. 8535 creating the City of
Novaliches out of 15 barangay from Quezon City
- Samson, an incumbent counselor of the first district of QC is challenging the
constitutionality of R.A. 8535
- Grounds: Fails to conform to the Local Government code, sections 7, 11, and
450, as to the requirements of income, population, and land area
Certifications as to the income, population, and land area were not presented
to Congress
- He assails that there is no certification attesting that the mother local
government unit, QC, will not be affected in terms of income, population, and
land area
- OSG replied: Petitioner failed to substantiate his allegations. Petitioner has
the burden of proof to overcome the legal presumption that the Congress
followed the provisions of the Local Government Code
- Case of VICTORIANO V. ELIZALDE ROPE WORKERS UNION: All
presumptions are indulged in favor of constitutionality

Held
- Section 7 of LGC of 1991: The creation of a local government unit or the
conversion from one level to another should have the requisites / verifiable
indicators of variability and projected capacity to provide.
- Income must be sufficient to provide for all essential government facilities
Income of not less than 20 million pesos
Exclusive of special funds, special account transfers, and
nonrecurring income
- Population total number of inhabitants
Should not be less than 150,000
- Land area it must be contiguous
Must be not less than 100 square kilometers as checked by
Land Management Bureau
Territory need not be contiguous IF (1) it comprises two or
more islands or (2) or is separated by a chartered city that
does not have income
- Land Area requirement shall NOT APPLY when the city composed of one or
more islands
- The territorial jurisdiction shall be properly identified by metes and bounds
 - Cong. Dante Liban of QC sponsored the Bill from House of Representatives
that eventually became R.A. 8535. Petitioner did not present any proof that a
certificate was not presented to the House Committee
- Moreover, present in the hearing of the Senate Committee were resource
persons from NSO, LMB, Bureau of Local Government Finance, officials of QC
themselves
o Petitioner avers that the oral manifestation made by the local
government is not enough certification
o The presence and official statements could serve the same purpose by
law as official certificates: affirmation and oath as witnesses give even
greater solemnity that any certificate
- Bureau of Local Government Finance presented the income of the 13
barangays to be 27M, NSO said the population in the barangays is 347,310
- There is no more need to comply with the requirements of land area as per
the Local Government Code, the creation of a new city shall comply with the
income and population OR land area. COMPLIANCE WITH EITHER
REQUIREMENT, IN ADDITION TO INCOME, IS SUFFICIENT
- R.A. 8535 fails to provide for a seat of government, a violation of Sec. 11 of
the LGC, but it is not as grave as the petitioner shows it to be can be cured
by Sec. 12 of LGC
- As per the Constitution, it just allows the apportionment of seats of the house
of representatives to the legislative districts, it does not necessarily say that
there should only be a number of districts available

ALDABA v. COMELEC
- Petition to declare R.A. 9591, creating a legislative district for the city of
Malolos Bulacan, unconstitutional due to its violation of minimum population
requirement
- At the time that the Bill was passed, the population of Malolos was 223,069
- The population was a contested fact but HB No. 3693 relied on the undated
certification of the Regional Director of NSO that the projected population of
Malolos will be 254k by the end of 2010 using the population growth rate of
3.78 from 1995 to 2000
- Petitioners are filing a case against the unconstitutionality of RA 9591 is
unconstitutional for failing to meet the minimum threshold of 250k
population
- OSG said that a projection is non-justiciable as it involves a determination of
the wisdom of a standard
- PETITION GRANTED
- Violation of Section 5, Article 6 of Consti and Section 3 of the Ordinance
appended to the constitution
- The regional director has no basis and no authority to issue such certification
o Certifications on demographic projections can be issued only if they
are declared official by the NSO board Regional director Mirandas
projection did not include this
o NSO administrator or his designated certifying officer
 o Intercensal population projection must be done in the MIDDLE OF
THE YEAR by stating the population of Malolos will be 254k by the
end of 2010 violates this
- Only entitled to a legislative district after obtaining 250k inhabitants only in
the IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING ELECTION (Section 3 of the Ordinance
appended to the Constitution)
- Even if the growth is at 3.78% per year, there will only be population of
241,550
- NSO has no population projections for the municipalities and cities but only
for entire regions and provinces

BAGABUYO v. COMELEC

Aquino

- Article 6, Section 5 only refers to CREATION OF LEGISLATIVE DISTRICTS IN

CITIES and not REAPPORTIONMENT OF PROVINCES
- Petitioners lack legal standing to question the unconstitutionality of R.A.
9716 failed to show that they have or will acquire and injury as a result of
implementation (Court decided that this may be excused because of the
establishment of transcendental importance)
HELD
- Petition denied
- Any law carries the presumption of unconstitutionality, to prove
unconstitutionality, a specific provision must have violated or transgressed
fundamental law
- There is no specific provision that 250,000 minimum population that must
compose a legislative district
- Mariano Case: while it is required for legislative cities to have a population of
250,000, it does not have to increase its population to another 250k to have
the addition of a legislative district within a city or province
- Section 3 of the Ordinance appended to the Constitution: a city whose
population has increased to more than 250,000 shall be entitled to at least
one congressional representative