PARTS OF A STATUTE

1. Preamble
- Prefatory statement or explanation
- Finding of facts, reciting the purpose or reason for making the law
- After the enacting clause before the body
- Not much on LEGISLATIONS as it is already in the EXPLANATORY NOTE
- Usually in EOs, PDs (to emphasize the purpose of the decrees)

2. Title (always indicating the legislative intent)

- “Every bill passed by the congress should only embrace one title”
- Dual Limitations
o Prevent conglomeration/heterogenous subjects
o Language should be sufficient to notify legislators, subjects, public
- Purpose
o Prevent logrolling (enacting multiple subjects in one bill)
o Prevent riders (provisions not in the title)
o Inform people about the subject of the act
- Requisites
o General subject
o Covers all provisions
o Not mislead the congress/people
- “Sufficiency test” (must contain the ff)
o General object which the statute seeks to effect
o Nature scope and consequences of the proposed law and its operations.
- Subject of Repeal of Statutes
o The repeal of a statute on a given subject is properly connected with the
subject matter of the new statute on the same subject and therefore a
repealing section in the new statute is VALID notwithstanding that the
title is silent.
o Reasons:
§ Repeal is the effect and not the subject
§ Only subjects are in the title
§ Not everything it repeals by implication should be mentioned
- How Requirement of Title is Construed
o Liberally construed
o When there is doubt, constitutionality of the statute should be favored
o Construed in a way that courts do not interfere & considers it sufficient if
the title expresses it.
- When the requirement not applicable
o 1935 (not applicable)
o 1973 and 1987 (applicable)

3. Enacting Clause
- Written immediately after the title
- States the authority by which the title was enacted
- Congress/BP: “Be it enacted by _________”
 - PDs: “Now therefore, I ______ hereby decree”
- Eos: “Now therefore, I ______ hereby order”

4. Purview/Body
- What the law is about
- Only one subject matter
- Divides an act into SECTIONS which are NUMBERED and contain a SINGLE
PROPOSITION

5. Separability Clause
- “if any provision is invalid, the remainder shall not be invalid”
- NOT controlling in the courts (the courts may invalidate the whole statute still)
- If the senate intended it to be whole, it wouldn’t pass it if there are certain
problems in the parts.

6. Repealing Clause
- NOT a legislative declaration finding an earlier law unconstitutional

7. Effectivity clause
- When the law takes effect
- 15 days of complete publication in the official gazette or newspaper of general
circulation

EFFECTS OF UNCONSTITUTIONALITY
- GENERAL RULE: an unconstitutional act is not a law; it confers no rights; it
imposes no duties; it affords no protection; it creates no office; it is , in legal
contemplation, inoperative as though it had never been passed
- OPERATIVE FACT: the challenged statute must have been in force and had to be
complied with until the court in an appropriate case declares its invalidity.
- Realism compels the acceptance of the thought that there could be a time lag
between the initiation of such presidential or congressional exercise of power
and the final declaration of nullity.
o Meanwhile, presumption of validity should be accorded.
- Effects of the subsequent ruling as to invalidity may have to be considered in
various aspects
o With respect to particular conduct, private and official.
o Questions of rights
o Public policy
- Two Views on the Effects of a Declaration of Unconstitutionality
o Orthodox View: an unconstitutional act is not a law; it confers no rights; it
imposes no duties; it affords no protection; it creates no office; it is , in
legal contemplation, inoperative as though it had never been passed
§ TOTAL NULLITY
§ not only parties are bound by the declaration of
unconstitutionality but all persons
§ no one may therefore invoke it nor may the courts be permitted
to apply it in subsequent cases
 o Modern View: does not annul or repeal the statute. Simply refuses to
recognize it and determines the rights of the parties as if the statute had
no existence
§ Decision affects the parties only and there is no judgement against
the statute.
§ May operate as a precedent for other similar cases but it does not
strike the statute from the statute books; it does not repeal,
supersede, revoke or annul the statute. The parties to the suit are
concluded by judgement but no one else is bound.
- An otherwise valid law may be held unconstitutional when it is allowed to
operate retrospectively and it impairs constitutionally vested rights.
- A law presumed unconstitutional is valid until its declaration of nullity.

AIDS TO CONSTRUCTION
- Title
o Serves as aid in case of doubt in its language, to its construction and to
ascertaining a legislative will. When the meaning of the statute is
obscure, courts may resort to its title to clear its obscurity.
o Title may indicate the legislative intent.
- When resort to title not authorized
o When the text of the statute is clear and free from doubt, it is improper
to resort to its title to make it obscure.
- Preamble
o Purpose, reason or justification for the enactment of the law
o The preamble is not an essential part of the statute. Hence, where the
meaning of a statute is clear and unambiguous, the preamble can neither
expand nor restrict its operation, much less prevail over its text.
o It may, when the statute is ambiguous, be resorted to clarify the
ambiguity.
o Opens the minds of the lawmakers as to the purpose to be achieved,
mischief to be remedied and the object to be accomplished by the
provisions of the statute.
o The preamble may restrict what otherwise appears to be a broad scope
of a law.
o It may also express the legislative intent to make the law apply
retroactively.

CONTEMPORARY CONSTRUCTION
- Generally
o Contemporary/practical constructions: constructions placed upon
statutes at the time of, or after, their enactment by the executive,
legislature or judicial authorities and those who are knowledgeable of the
intent and purpose of the law such as draftsmen and bill sponsors.
- Executive Construction
 o Contemporaneous construction: construction placed upon the statute by
an executive or administrative officer called upon to execute or
administer the statute.
o The duty of enforcing the law (executive branch), necessarily calls for the
interpretation of its ambiguous provisions. Executive and administrative
officers are the very FIRST to interpret the law.
o Three Types of Executive Interpretations
§ Construction by an executive or administrative officer directly
called to implement the law
• May be expressed or implied.
• Expressed -> Embodied in a circular, directive, or
regulation
• Implied -> practice or mode of enforcement of not
applying the statute to certain situations or of applying it
in a particular manner.
§ Construction by the Secretary of Justice in his capacity as the chief
legal adviser of the government.
• Form of opinions issued upon request of administrative or
executive officials who enforce the law
• In the absence of judicial ruling, the opinions of the
Secretary of Justice are generally controlling among
administrative and executive officials of the government.
• The president or the Executive Secretary (by authority of
the President) has the power to modify, alter or reverse
the construction of a statute given by the Secretary.
§ Interpretation handed down in an adversary proceeding in the
form of a ruling by an executive officer exercising quasi judicial
power
• Different from construction of a public officer charged with
the enforcement of a law
• The duty is to present the case for the side which he
represents upon which lies the responsibility of decision.
• Such rulings need not have the detachment of a judicial or
semi-judicial decision, and may properly carry bias. It
would seem that they should not be authoritative.
- Weight accorded to contemporaneous construction
o The contemporaneous construction is very probably the true expression
of the legislative purpose especially if it is followed for a considerable
period of time.
o When there is a doubt as to the interpretation of a statute, the uniform
construction placed upon it by the executive or administrative officer
charged with its enforcement will be adopted.
o Unless shown to be clearly erroneous, contemporaneous construction
will control the interpretation of the statute by the courts.
o “The principle that the contemporaneous construction of a statute by the
executive officers of the government, whose duty is it to execute it, is
entitled to great respect, and should ordinarily control the construction of
 the statute by the courts, is so firmly embedded in our jurisdiction that no
authorities need be cited to support it”
o Reasons why the interpretation of the executive/administrative should be
respected
§ Establishment of diverse administrative agencies for addressing
and satisfying the needs of a modern/modernizing society
§ Accumulation of experience and growth of specialized capabilities
by the administrative agency in charge of implementing.
§ Executive officials are presumed to have familiarized themselves
with all the considerations pertinent to the meaning and purpose
of the law and to have formed an independent, conscientious and
competent expert opinion thereon.
o The weight that may be given to a contemporaneous construction
increases as the period in which it is followed and observed lengthens
and its acceptability widens
§ In view of the long continued construction which has been placed
upon it by the government officials, and for which they now
continue, the very fact that CONGRESS HAS NOT SEEN FIT TO
REPEAL OR CHANGE THE LAW IS A VERY POTENT ARGUMENT IN
FAVOR OF SUSTAINING THE CONSTRUCTION.
§ Especially true under the 1973 constitution where some ministers
or heads of executive ministries/departments are also members
of the Batasang Pambansa. Executive being members of the
legislative know the the intent of the law.
- Weight accorded to usage and practice
o Rules and regulations issued by executive or administrative officers
pursuant to, and as authorized by, law have the force and effect of laws.
o An administrative agency has the power to interpret its own rules and
such interpretation becomes part of the rules
- Reasons why contemporaneous construction is given much weight.
o It comes from the particular branch of government called upon to
implement the law thus construed
o Executive officials are presumed to have familiarized themselves with all
the considerations pertinent to the meaning and purpose of the law and
to have formed an independent, conscientious and competent expert
opinion thereon.
o There is the need for certainty and predictability in the law. A statute is
enacted and a regulation is issued to implement it.
- When contemporaneous construction disregarded
o where the construction is clearly erroneous
o where strong reason to the contrary exists
o where the court has previously given the statute a different
interpretation
o the contemporaneous construction of a statute is neither controlling nor
binding upon the court as the duty and the power to interpret the law ->
judicial function
 o it is the role of the judiciary to define and when necessary, to correct
constitutional or statutory interpretations.
- Erroneous contemporaneous construction does not preclude correction nor
create rights
o if executive/ administrative official erroneously applied and executed a
law, it may be corrected when the true construction is ascertained
§ may be corrected by him, successor in office or by the court
o an erroneous contemporaneous construction creates no vested right on
the part of those who relied and followed the construction.
o Those who benefited from the error may (1) not prevent the correction
nor (2) excuse themselves from complying with the correction (3) nor can
they set up such error as legal obstacle against recovery from them of
what they received pursuant to, and on the basis of, the erroneous
application of law.
o THE RULE IS NOT ABSOLUTE
§ Exceptions
• Interest of justice and fair play
- Legislative interpretation
o The legislature can
§ Prove in the statute itself an interpretative or declaratory clause
prescribing rules of construction or indicating how its provisions
should be construed.
§ Define the terms used in a statute
§ Enact a declaratory act construing a previous law
§ Pass a resolution indicating its sense or intention as to a given
statute.
o The legislature cannot
§ Limit or restrict the power granted to the courts by the
constitution
§ Make the definition conclusive not only as regards the statute
which defines the term but also as regards other statutes or as
used elsewhere
§ Validate a law which violates a constitutional provision to prevent
an attack in the courts (by declaring that it shall be construed not
to contrive the constitutional limitation)
o Legislative interpretation is not controlling to the judiciary but can be
resorted to clarify ambiguity.
o Entitled to respectful consideration
- Legislative approval
o The legislature is presumed to have full knowledge of a contemporaneous
construction by an administrative/executive officer charged with its
enforcement
o The legislature may, by action or inaction, approve or ratify it.
o Ways to approve or ratify
§ Reenactment
 • Uses words similar in their import to the language of an
earlier law which received the contemporaneous
construction
§ Amendment
• Amends a prior statute without, in the amending act,
providing anything which would restrict, change or nullify
the previous contemporaneous construction.
§ Appropriation by the legislature for hearing officers
• Authority given to the officer to hear and receive evidence
in a case on the basis of his interpretation
o The legislature’s silence to a construction is equivalent to consent in
continuing the practice
- Reenactment
o Most common act of legislative approval
o Accorded greater weight and respect
o Reenactment is an indication of the adoption by the legislature of a prior
construction
§ Must be reenacted and not merely amended
§ the contemporaneous construction must be in the form of
regulation to implement the law
§ duly published
- Stare Decisis
o Et non quieta movere – one should follow past precedents and should not
disturb what has been settled
o “when the court has once laid down a principle of law as applicable to a
certain state of facts, it will adhere to that principle and apply it to all
future cases where the facts are substantially the same”
§ Assures certainty and stability in the legal system
o Interpretation of a statute by the Supreme Court forms part of the
statute itself and of the legal system
o Must be categorically stated on an issue raised by the parties.
o MUST BE A DIRECT RULING (not just an obiter dictum)
o NOT ABSOLUTE
§ If found to be contrary to law, it must be abandoned
§ Should not be applied when there is a conflict between the
precedent and the law.
o ONLY THE SUPREME COURT CAN CHANGE OR ABANDON A PRECEDENT.
§ Cannot be done by an inferior court nor by legislature except
when the latter repeals or amends the law