[ G. R. No. L-6266, February 02, 1953 ]
EULOGIO RODRIGUEZ, SR. ETC., ET AL., PETITIONERS, VS. VICENTE GELLA, ETC., ET AL., RESPONDENTS
D E C I S I O N
PARAS, C.J.:
As a fitting foreword, it may be recalled that on a previous occasion, on August 26, 1949 to be exact, this court had already passed upon the status of Commonwealth Act No. 671, approved on December 16, 1941, "declaring a state of total emergency
as a result of war involving the Philippines and authorizing the President to promulgate rules and regulations to meet such emergency." Five members held that the Act ceased to be operative in its totality, on May 25,1946 (when the Congress met in regular session)
according to Justices Ozaeta, Feria, Tuason and the writer, and on June 9, 1945 (when the Congress congress convened in special session) according to Chief Justice Moran. Justices Bengzon, Padilla, Montemayor, Reyes and Torres in effect concluded that the powers delegated
to the President had been withdrawn as to matters already legislated upon by the Congress or on which the latter had demonstrated its readiness or ability to act. Executive Orders No. 62 (dated June 21, 1947) regulating house and lot rentals, No. 192 (dated December 24,
1948) regulating exports, Nos. 225 and 226 (dated June 15, 1949) the first appropriation funds for the operation of the Government from July 1, 1949 to June 30, 1950, and the second appropriating funds for election expenses in November, 1949, were therefore declared null and
void for having been issued after Act No. 671 had lapsed and/or after the Congress had enacted legislation on the same subjects.[1]
More or less the same considerations that influenced our pronouncements of August 26, 1949 are and should be controlling in the case now before us, wherein the petitioners seek to invalidate Executive Orders Nos. 545 and 546 issued on November 10, 1952, the first appropriating the sum of P37,850,500 for urgent and essential public works, and the second setting aside the sum of P11,367,600 for relief in the provinces and cities visited by typhoons, floods, droughts, earthquakes, volcanic action and other calamities.
Section 26 of Article VI of the Constitution provides that "in times of war or other national emergency, the Congress may by law authorize the President, for a limited period and subject to such restrictions as it may prescribe, to promulgate rules and regulations to carry out a declared national policy." Accordingly the National Assembly passed Commonwealth Act No. 671, declaring (in section 1) the national policy that "the existence of war between the United States and other countries of Europe and Asia, which involves the Philippines makes it necessary to invest the President with extraordinary powers in order to meet the resulting emergency," and (in section 2) authorizing the President, "during the existence of the emergency, to promulgate such rules and regulations as he may deem necessary to carry out the national policy declared in section 1."
As the Act was expressly in pursuance of the constitutional provision, it has to be assumed that the National Assembly intended it to be only for a limited period. If it be contended that the Act has not yet been duly repealed, and such step is necessary to a cessation of the emergency powers delegated to the President, the result would be obvious unconstitutionality, since it may never be repealed by the Congress, or if the latter ever attempts to do so, the President may wield his veto. This eventuality has in fact taken place when the President disapproved House Bill No. 727, repealing all Emergency Powers Acts, The situation will make the Congress and the President or either as the principal authority to determine the indefinite duration of the delegation of legislative powers, in palpable repugnance to the constitutional provision that any grant there-under must be for a limited period, necessarily to be fixed in the law itself and not dependent upon the arbitrary or elastic will of either the Congress or the President.
Although House Bill No. 727, had been vetoed by the President and did not thereby become a regular statute, it may at least be considered as a concurrent resolution of the Congress formally declaring the termination of the emergency powers. To contend that the Bill needed presidential acquiescence to produce effect, would lead to the anomalous, if not absurd, situation that, "while Congress might delegate its powers by a simple majority, it might not be able to recall them except by two-third vote. In other words, it would be easier for Congress to delegate its powers than to take them back. This is not right and is not, and ought not to be the law."[2]
Act No. 671 may be likened to an ordinary contract of agency, whereby the consent of the agent is necessary only in the sense that he cannot be compelled to accept the trust, in the same way that the principal cannot be forced to keep the relation in eternity or at the will of the agent. Neither can it be suggested that the agency created under the Act is coupled with interest.
The logical view consistent with constitutionality is to hold that the powers lasted only during the emergency resulting from the last world war which factually involved the Philippines when Act No. 671 was passed on December 16, 1941. That emergency, which naturally terminated upon the ending of the last world war, was contemplated by the members of the National Assembly on the foresight that the actual state of war could prevent it from holding its next regular session. This is confirmed by the following statement of President Quezon: "When it became evident that we were completely helpless against air attack and that it was most unlikely the Philippine Legislature would hold its next regular session which was to open on January 1, 1942, the National Assembly passed into history approving a resolution which reaffirmed the abiding faith of the Filipino people in, and their loyalty to, the United States. The Assembly also enacted a law granting the President of the Philippines all the powers that under the Philippine Constitution may be delegated to him in time of war."[3] When President Quezon said "in time of war", he undoubtedly meant such factual war as that then raging.
As early as July 26, 1948, the Congress categorically declared that "since liberation conditions have gradually returned to normal, but not so with regard to those who have suffered the ravages of war and who have not received any relief for the loss and destruction resulting therefrom," and that "the emergency created by the last war as regards these war sufferers being still existent, it is the declared policy of the state that as to them the debt moratorium should be continued in force in a modified form."[4] It is important to remember that Republic Act No. 342 in which this declaration was made bore the approval of the President. Indeed, the latter in his speech delivered on July 4, 1949, plainly proclaimed that "what emergencies it (the Republic) faces today are incidental passing rains artificially created by seasonal partisanship, very common among democracies but will disappear with the rains that follow the thunderclaps not later than November 8 of this year," an admission, that such emergencies not only are not total but are not the result of the last war as envisaged in Act No. 671.
If more is necessary to demonstrate the unmistakable stand of the legislative department on the alleged existence of emergency, reference may be had to House Bill No. 727, hereinbefore referred to, repealing all Emergency Powers Acts.
Moreover, section 26 of Article VI of the Constitution, in virtue of which Act No. 671 was passed, authorizes the delegation of powers by the Congress (1) in times of war or (2) other national emergency. The emergency expressly spoken of in the title and in section 1 of the Act is one "in time of war," as distinguished from "other national emergency" that may arise as an after-effect of war or from natural causes such as widespread earthquakes, typhoons, floods, and the like. Certainly the typhoons that hit some provinces and cities in 1952 not only did not result from the last world war but were and could not have been contemplated by the legislators. At any rate, the Congress is available for necessary special sessions, and it cannot let the people down without somehow being answerable thereover.
As a matter of fact, the President, in returning to the Congress without his signature House Bill No. 727, did not invoke any emergency resulting from the last world war, but only called attention to an impending emergency that may be brought about by present complicated and troubled world conditions, and to the fact that our own soldiers are fighting and dying in Korea in defense of democracy and freedom and for the preservation of our Republic. The emergency thus feared cannot, however, be attributed to the war mentioned in Act No. 671 and fought between Germany and Japan on one side and the Allied Powers on the other; and indications are that in the next world war, if any, the communist countries will be aligned against the democracies. No departure can be made from the national policy declared in section 1 of Act No. 671. New powers may be granted as often as emergencies contemplated in the Constitution arise.
There is no point in the argument that the Philippines is still technically at war with Japan pending the ratification of the peace treaty. In the first place, Act No. 671 referred to a factual war. In the second place, the last world war was between the United States and Japan, the Philippines being involved only because it was then under American sovereignty. In the third place, the United States had already signed the peace treaty with Japan, and the Philippines has become an independent country since July 4, 1946.
It is pointed out that the passage of House Bill No. 727 is inconsistent with the claim that the emergency powers are non-existent. But, from the debates in the House, it is patent that the Bill had to be approved merely to remove all doubts, especially because this Court had hereto-fore failed, for lack of necessary majority, to declare Act No. 671 entirely inoperative.
Reliance is placed on the petition of about seventy Congressmen and Senators and on House Resolution No. 99, urging the President to release and appropriate funds for essential and urgent public works and for relief in the typhoon-stricken areas. It is enough to state, in reply, that the said petition and resolution cannot prevail over the force and effect of House Bill No. 727 formally passed by two chambers of the Congress. If faith can be accorded to the resolution of one house, there is more reason for accepting the solemn declaration of two houses.
Even under the theory of some members of this court that insofar as the Congress had shown its readiness or ability to act on a given matter, the emergency powers delegated to the President had been pro tanto withdrawn, Executive Orders Nos. 545 and 546 must be declared as having no legal anchorage. We can take judicial notice of the fact that the Congress has since liberation repeatedly been approving acts appropriating funds for the operation of the Government, public works, and many other purposes, with the result that as to such legislative task the Congress must be deemed to have long decided to assume the corresponding power itself and to withdraw the same from the President. If the President had ceased to have powers with regards to general appropriations, none can remain in respect of special appropriations; otherwise he may accomplish indirectly what he cannot do directly. Besides, it is significant that Act No, 671 expressly limited the power of the President to that of continuing "in force" appropriations which would lapse or otherwise become inoperative, so that, even assuming that the Act is still effective, it is doubtful whether the President can by executive orders make new appropriations. The specific power "to continue in force laws and appropriations which would lapse or otherwise become inoperative" is a limitation on the general power "to exercise such other powers as he may deem necessary to enable the Government to fulfill its responsibilities and to maintain and enforce its authority." Indeed, to hold that although the Congress has, for about seven years since liberation, been normally functioning and legislating on every conceivable field, the President still has any residuary powers under the Act, would necessarily lead to confusion and overlapping, if not conflict.
Shelter may not be sought in the proposition that the President should be allowed to exercise emergency powers for the sake of speed and expediency in the interest and for the welfare of the people, because we have the Constitution, designed to establish a government under a regime of justice, liberty and democracy. In line with such primordial objective, our Government is democratic in form and based on the system of separation of powers. Unless and until changed or amended, we shall have to abide by the letter and spirit of the Constitution and be prepared to accept the consequences resulting from or inherent in disagreements between, inaction or even refusal of the legislative and executive departments. Much as it is imperative in some cases to have prompt official action, deadlocks in and slowness of democratic processes must be preferred to concentration of powers in any one man or group of men for obvious reasons. The framers of the Constitution, however, had the vision of and were careful in allowing delegation of legislative powers to the President for a limited period "in times of war or other national emergency." They had thus entrusted to the good judgment of the Congress the duty of coping with any national emergency by a more efficient procedure; but it alone must decide because emergency in itself cannot and should not create power. In our democracy the hope and survival of the nation lie in the wisdom and unselfish patriotism of all officials and in their faithful adherence to the Constitution.
Wherefore, Executive Orders Nos. 545 and 546 are hereby declared null and void, and the respondents are ordered to desist from appropriating, releasing, allotting, and expending the public funds set aside therein. So ordered, without costs.
Feria, Pablo, and Tuason, JJ., concur.
Bengzon, J., concurs in the result.
[1] Emergency Powers cases, decided on August 26, 1949, 45 Off. Gaz., pp. 4411-4478.
[2] Emergency Powers Cases, supra, opinion of Mr. Justice Tuason, quoting the following from Corwin, President: Office and Powers, 1948 ed., p. 160: "It is generally agreed that the maxim that the legislature may not delegate its powers signifies at the very least that the legislature may not abdicate its powers. Yet how, in view of the scope that legislative delegations take nowadays, is the line between delegation and abdication to be maintained? Only, I urge, by rendering the delegated powers recoverable without the consent of the delegate; * * *."
[3] The Good Fight, pp. 204-205.
[4] Sec. 1, Republic Act No. 342, approved on July 26, 1948.
More or less the same considerations that influenced our pronouncements of August 26, 1949 are and should be controlling in the case now before us, wherein the petitioners seek to invalidate Executive Orders Nos. 545 and 546 issued on November 10, 1952, the first appropriating the sum of P37,850,500 for urgent and essential public works, and the second setting aside the sum of P11,367,600 for relief in the provinces and cities visited by typhoons, floods, droughts, earthquakes, volcanic action and other calamities.
Section 26 of Article VI of the Constitution provides that "in times of war or other national emergency, the Congress may by law authorize the President, for a limited period and subject to such restrictions as it may prescribe, to promulgate rules and regulations to carry out a declared national policy." Accordingly the National Assembly passed Commonwealth Act No. 671, declaring (in section 1) the national policy that "the existence of war between the United States and other countries of Europe and Asia, which involves the Philippines makes it necessary to invest the President with extraordinary powers in order to meet the resulting emergency," and (in section 2) authorizing the President, "during the existence of the emergency, to promulgate such rules and regulations as he may deem necessary to carry out the national policy declared in section 1."
As the Act was expressly in pursuance of the constitutional provision, it has to be assumed that the National Assembly intended it to be only for a limited period. If it be contended that the Act has not yet been duly repealed, and such step is necessary to a cessation of the emergency powers delegated to the President, the result would be obvious unconstitutionality, since it may never be repealed by the Congress, or if the latter ever attempts to do so, the President may wield his veto. This eventuality has in fact taken place when the President disapproved House Bill No. 727, repealing all Emergency Powers Acts, The situation will make the Congress and the President or either as the principal authority to determine the indefinite duration of the delegation of legislative powers, in palpable repugnance to the constitutional provision that any grant there-under must be for a limited period, necessarily to be fixed in the law itself and not dependent upon the arbitrary or elastic will of either the Congress or the President.
Although House Bill No. 727, had been vetoed by the President and did not thereby become a regular statute, it may at least be considered as a concurrent resolution of the Congress formally declaring the termination of the emergency powers. To contend that the Bill needed presidential acquiescence to produce effect, would lead to the anomalous, if not absurd, situation that, "while Congress might delegate its powers by a simple majority, it might not be able to recall them except by two-third vote. In other words, it would be easier for Congress to delegate its powers than to take them back. This is not right and is not, and ought not to be the law."[2]
Act No. 671 may be likened to an ordinary contract of agency, whereby the consent of the agent is necessary only in the sense that he cannot be compelled to accept the trust, in the same way that the principal cannot be forced to keep the relation in eternity or at the will of the agent. Neither can it be suggested that the agency created under the Act is coupled with interest.
The logical view consistent with constitutionality is to hold that the powers lasted only during the emergency resulting from the last world war which factually involved the Philippines when Act No. 671 was passed on December 16, 1941. That emergency, which naturally terminated upon the ending of the last world war, was contemplated by the members of the National Assembly on the foresight that the actual state of war could prevent it from holding its next regular session. This is confirmed by the following statement of President Quezon: "When it became evident that we were completely helpless against air attack and that it was most unlikely the Philippine Legislature would hold its next regular session which was to open on January 1, 1942, the National Assembly passed into history approving a resolution which reaffirmed the abiding faith of the Filipino people in, and their loyalty to, the United States. The Assembly also enacted a law granting the President of the Philippines all the powers that under the Philippine Constitution may be delegated to him in time of war."[3] When President Quezon said "in time of war", he undoubtedly meant such factual war as that then raging.
As early as July 26, 1948, the Congress categorically declared that "since liberation conditions have gradually returned to normal, but not so with regard to those who have suffered the ravages of war and who have not received any relief for the loss and destruction resulting therefrom," and that "the emergency created by the last war as regards these war sufferers being still existent, it is the declared policy of the state that as to them the debt moratorium should be continued in force in a modified form."[4] It is important to remember that Republic Act No. 342 in which this declaration was made bore the approval of the President. Indeed, the latter in his speech delivered on July 4, 1949, plainly proclaimed that "what emergencies it (the Republic) faces today are incidental passing rains artificially created by seasonal partisanship, very common among democracies but will disappear with the rains that follow the thunderclaps not later than November 8 of this year," an admission, that such emergencies not only are not total but are not the result of the last war as envisaged in Act No. 671.
If more is necessary to demonstrate the unmistakable stand of the legislative department on the alleged existence of emergency, reference may be had to House Bill No. 727, hereinbefore referred to, repealing all Emergency Powers Acts.
Moreover, section 26 of Article VI of the Constitution, in virtue of which Act No. 671 was passed, authorizes the delegation of powers by the Congress (1) in times of war or (2) other national emergency. The emergency expressly spoken of in the title and in section 1 of the Act is one "in time of war," as distinguished from "other national emergency" that may arise as an after-effect of war or from natural causes such as widespread earthquakes, typhoons, floods, and the like. Certainly the typhoons that hit some provinces and cities in 1952 not only did not result from the last world war but were and could not have been contemplated by the legislators. At any rate, the Congress is available for necessary special sessions, and it cannot let the people down without somehow being answerable thereover.
As a matter of fact, the President, in returning to the Congress without his signature House Bill No. 727, did not invoke any emergency resulting from the last world war, but only called attention to an impending emergency that may be brought about by present complicated and troubled world conditions, and to the fact that our own soldiers are fighting and dying in Korea in defense of democracy and freedom and for the preservation of our Republic. The emergency thus feared cannot, however, be attributed to the war mentioned in Act No. 671 and fought between Germany and Japan on one side and the Allied Powers on the other; and indications are that in the next world war, if any, the communist countries will be aligned against the democracies. No departure can be made from the national policy declared in section 1 of Act No. 671. New powers may be granted as often as emergencies contemplated in the Constitution arise.
There is no point in the argument that the Philippines is still technically at war with Japan pending the ratification of the peace treaty. In the first place, Act No. 671 referred to a factual war. In the second place, the last world war was between the United States and Japan, the Philippines being involved only because it was then under American sovereignty. In the third place, the United States had already signed the peace treaty with Japan, and the Philippines has become an independent country since July 4, 1946.
It is pointed out that the passage of House Bill No. 727 is inconsistent with the claim that the emergency powers are non-existent. But, from the debates in the House, it is patent that the Bill had to be approved merely to remove all doubts, especially because this Court had hereto-fore failed, for lack of necessary majority, to declare Act No. 671 entirely inoperative.
Reliance is placed on the petition of about seventy Congressmen and Senators and on House Resolution No. 99, urging the President to release and appropriate funds for essential and urgent public works and for relief in the typhoon-stricken areas. It is enough to state, in reply, that the said petition and resolution cannot prevail over the force and effect of House Bill No. 727 formally passed by two chambers of the Congress. If faith can be accorded to the resolution of one house, there is more reason for accepting the solemn declaration of two houses.
Even under the theory of some members of this court that insofar as the Congress had shown its readiness or ability to act on a given matter, the emergency powers delegated to the President had been pro tanto withdrawn, Executive Orders Nos. 545 and 546 must be declared as having no legal anchorage. We can take judicial notice of the fact that the Congress has since liberation repeatedly been approving acts appropriating funds for the operation of the Government, public works, and many other purposes, with the result that as to such legislative task the Congress must be deemed to have long decided to assume the corresponding power itself and to withdraw the same from the President. If the President had ceased to have powers with regards to general appropriations, none can remain in respect of special appropriations; otherwise he may accomplish indirectly what he cannot do directly. Besides, it is significant that Act No, 671 expressly limited the power of the President to that of continuing "in force" appropriations which would lapse or otherwise become inoperative, so that, even assuming that the Act is still effective, it is doubtful whether the President can by executive orders make new appropriations. The specific power "to continue in force laws and appropriations which would lapse or otherwise become inoperative" is a limitation on the general power "to exercise such other powers as he may deem necessary to enable the Government to fulfill its responsibilities and to maintain and enforce its authority." Indeed, to hold that although the Congress has, for about seven years since liberation, been normally functioning and legislating on every conceivable field, the President still has any residuary powers under the Act, would necessarily lead to confusion and overlapping, if not conflict.
Shelter may not be sought in the proposition that the President should be allowed to exercise emergency powers for the sake of speed and expediency in the interest and for the welfare of the people, because we have the Constitution, designed to establish a government under a regime of justice, liberty and democracy. In line with such primordial objective, our Government is democratic in form and based on the system of separation of powers. Unless and until changed or amended, we shall have to abide by the letter and spirit of the Constitution and be prepared to accept the consequences resulting from or inherent in disagreements between, inaction or even refusal of the legislative and executive departments. Much as it is imperative in some cases to have prompt official action, deadlocks in and slowness of democratic processes must be preferred to concentration of powers in any one man or group of men for obvious reasons. The framers of the Constitution, however, had the vision of and were careful in allowing delegation of legislative powers to the President for a limited period "in times of war or other national emergency." They had thus entrusted to the good judgment of the Congress the duty of coping with any national emergency by a more efficient procedure; but it alone must decide because emergency in itself cannot and should not create power. In our democracy the hope and survival of the nation lie in the wisdom and unselfish patriotism of all officials and in their faithful adherence to the Constitution.
Wherefore, Executive Orders Nos. 545 and 546 are hereby declared null and void, and the respondents are ordered to desist from appropriating, releasing, allotting, and expending the public funds set aside therein. So ordered, without costs.
Feria, Pablo, and Tuason, JJ., concur.
Bengzon, J., concurs in the result.
[1] Emergency Powers cases, decided on August 26, 1949, 45 Off. Gaz., pp. 4411-4478.
[2] Emergency Powers Cases, supra, opinion of Mr. Justice Tuason, quoting the following from Corwin, President: Office and Powers, 1948 ed., p. 160: "It is generally agreed that the maxim that the legislature may not delegate its powers signifies at the very least that the legislature may not abdicate its powers. Yet how, in view of the scope that legislative delegations take nowadays, is the line between delegation and abdication to be maintained? Only, I urge, by rendering the delegated powers recoverable without the consent of the delegate; * * *."
[3] The Good Fight, pp. 204-205.
[4] Sec. 1, Republic Act No. 342, approved on July 26, 1948.