Navarro V Ermita Digest

NAVARRO v.
ERMITA
GR NO. 180050
FACTS:
The President of the Republic approved into law Republic Act No. 9355, An Act Creating the Province of Dinagat Islands.
The Commission on Elections conducted the mandatory plebiscite for the ratification of the creation of the province under
the Local Government Code. The plebiscite yielded 69,943 affirmative votes and 63,502 negative votes.
With the approval of the people from both the mother province of Surigao del Norte and the Province of Dinagat Islands,
the President appointed the interim set of provincial officials who took their oath of office. Later, during the synchronized
elections, the Dinagatnons elected their new set of provincial officials who assumed office.
Petitioners Rodolfo G. Navarro, Victor F. Bernal and Rene O. Medina, former political leaders of Surigao del Norte, filed a
petition for certiorari and prohibition challenging the constitutionality of R.A. No. 9355. The Court dismissed the petition on
technical grounds. Their motion for reconsideration was also denied.
Petitioners filed another petition for certiorari seeking to nullify R.A. No. 9355 for being unconstitutional. They alleged that
the creation of Dinagat as a new province would perpetuate an illegal act of Congress, and would unjustly deprive the
people of Surigao del Norte of a large chunk of the provincial territory, Internal Revenue Allocation, and rich resources from
the area. They pointed out that when the law was passed, Dinagat had a land area of 802.12 square kilometers only and a
population of only 106,951, failing to comply with Section 10, Article X of the Constitution and of Section 461 of the LGC.
The Court rendered its Decision granting the petition and declared R.A. No. 9355 unconstitutional for failure to comply with
the requirements on population and land area in the creation of a province under the LGC.
The Office of the Solicitor General and Governor Geraldine Ecleo Villaroman, representing the Province of Dinagat Islands,
filed motions for reconsideration.
The arguments of the movants are similar. The grounds for reconsideration of Governor Villaroman can be subsumed under
the grounds for reconsideration of the OSG, which are as follows:
I.
The Province of Dinagat Islands was created in accordance with the provisions of the 1987 Constitution and the Local
Government Code of 1991. Article 9 of the Implementing Rules and Regulations is merely interpretative of Section 461 of
the Local Government Code.
II.
The power to create a local government unit is vested with the Legislature. The acts of the Legislature and Executive in
enacting into law RA 9355 should be respected as petitioners failed to overcome the presumption of validity or
constitutionality.
III.
Recent and prevailing jurisprudence considers the operative fact doctrine as a reason for upholding the validity and
constitutionality of laws involving the creation of a new local government unit as in the instant case.
ISSUES:
1. W/N RA. 9355, An Act Creating the Province of Dinagat Islands, unconstitutional
2. W/N Article 9(2) of the IRR of the LGC is valid
RULING:
1.Yes. The arguments are unmeritorious and have already been passed upon by the Court in its Decision, ruling that R.A.
No. 9355 is unconstitutional, since it failed to comply with either the territorial or population requirement contained in
Section 461 of R.A. No. 7160, otherwise known as the Local Government Code of 1991.
When the Dinagat Islands was proclaimed a new province on December 3, 2006, it had an official population of only
106,951 based on the 2000 Census of Population conducted by the National Statistics Office (NSO), which population is
short of the statutory requirement of 250,000 inhabitants.
Although the Provincial Government of Surigao del Norte conducted a special census of population in Dinagat Islands in
2003, which yielded a population count of 371,000, the result was not certified by the NSO as required by the Local
Government Code. Moreover, respondents failed to prove that with the population count of 371,000, the population of
cralaw
the original unit (mother Province of Surigao del Norte) would not be reduced to less than the minimum requirement
prescribed by law at the time of the creation of the new province.
Less than a year after the proclamation of the new province, the NSO conducted the 2007 Census of Population. The NSO
certified that as of August 1, 2007, Dinagat Islands had a total population of only 120,813, which was still below the
cralaw
minimum requirement of 250,000 inhabitants.
Based on the foregoing, R.A. No. 9355 failed to comply with the population requirement of 250,000 inhabitants as
certified by the NSO.
Moreover, the land area of the province failed to comply with the statutory requirement of 2,000 square kilometers. R.A.
No. 9355 specifically states that the Province of Dinagat Islands contains an approximate land area of 802.12 square
kilometers. This was not disputed by the respondent Governor of the Province of Dinagat Islands in her Comment. She
and the other respondents instead asserted that the province, which is composed of more than one island, is exempted
from the land area requirement based on the provision in the Rules and Regulations Implementing the Local Government
Code of 1991 (IRR), specifically paragraph 2 of Article 9 which states that "[t]he land area requirement shall not apply
where the proposed province is composed of one (1) or more islands." The certificate of compliance issued by the Lands
Management Bureau was also based on the exemption under paragraph 2, Article 9 of the IRR.
2. The Court held that paragraph 2 of Article 9 of the IRR is null and void, because the exemption is not found in Section
461 of the Local Government Code. There is no dispute that in case of discrepancy between the basic law and the rules
and regulations implementing the said law, the basic law prevails, because the rules and regulations cannot go beyond
the terms and provisions of the basic law.
Contrary to the contention of the movants, the exemption above pertains only to the requirement of territorial contiguity.
It clearly states that the requirement of territorial contiguity may be dispensed with in the case of a province comprising
two or more islands, or is separated by a chartered city or cities which do not contribute to the income of the province.
Nowhere in paragraph (b) is it expressly stated or may it be implied that when a province is composed of two or more
islands, or when the territory of a province is separated by a chartered city or cities, such province need not comply with
the land area requirement of at least 2,000 square kilometers or the requirement in paragraph (a) (i) of Section 461of
the Local Government Code.

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NAVARRO v.

minimum requirement of 250,000 inhabitants.

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