EN BANC

 
VICTORINO B. ALDABA, G.R No. 188078
CARLO JOLETTE S. FAJARDO,
JULIO G. MORADA, AND
MINERVA ALDABA MORADA,
PETITIONERS, PRESENT:
PUNO, C.J.,
CARPIO,
CORONA,
CARPIO MORALES, 
VELASCO, JR., 
NACHURA,
- VERSUS - LEONARDO-DE CASTRO, 
BRION, 
PERALTA,
BERSAMIN,
DEL CASTILLO,
ABAD,
VILLARAMA, JR.,
PEREZ, AND
MENDOZA, JJ.
 
COMMISSION ON ELECTIONS, Promulgated:
Respondent. March 15, 2010
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RESOLUTION
 
 
CARPIO, J.:
 
 
This resolves the motion for reconsideration of respondent Commission on
Elections (COMELEC) of the Decision dated 25 January 2010.[1]
The COMELEC grounds its motion on the singular reason, already considered and
rejected in the Decision, that Congress reliance on the Certification of Alberto N.
Miranda (Miranda), Region III Director, National Statistics Office (NSO),
projecting Malolos Citys population in 2010, is non-justiciable. The COMELEC
also calls attention to the other sources of Malolos Citys population indicators as of
2007 (2007 Census of Population PMS 3 Progress Enumeration Report[2]) and as of
2008 (Certification of the City of Malolos Water District, dated 31 July 2008,[3] and
Certification of the Liga ng Barangay, dated 22 August 2008[4]) which Congress
allegedly used in enacting Republic Act No. 9591 (RA 9591). The COMELEC
extends its non-justiciability argument to these materials.
 
We find no reason to grant the motion.
 
First. It will not do for the COMELEC to insist that the reliability and
authoritativeness of the population indicators Congress used in enacting RA 9591
are non-justiciable. If laws creating legislative districts are unquestionably within
the ambit of this Courts judicial review power,[5] then there is more reason to
hold justiciable subsidiary questions impacting on their constitutionality, such as
their compliance with a specific constitutional limitation under Section 5(3),
Article VI of the 1987 Constitution that only cities with at least 250,000
constituents are entitled to representation in Congress. To fulfill this obligation, the
Court, of necessity, must inquire into the authoritativeness and reliability of the
population indicators Congress used to comply with the constitutional limitation.
Thus, nearly five decades ago, we already rejected claims of non-justiciability of
an apportionment law alleged to violate the constitutional requirement of
proportional representation:
It is argued in the motion to reconsider, that since Republic Act
3040 improves existing conditions, this Court could perhaps, in the
exercise of judicial statesmanship, consider the question involved as
purely political and therefore non-justiciable. The overwhelming
weight of authority is that district apportionment laws are subject to
review by the courts[:]
 
The constitutionality of a legislative apportionment
act is a judicial question, and not one which the court
cannot consider on the ground that it is a political question.
 
It is well settled that the passage of apportionment acts is not so exclusively within the
political power of the legislature as to preclude a court from inquiring into their
constitutionality when the question is properly brought before it.
 
It may be added in this connection, that the mere impact of the suit upon the political
situation does not render it political instead of judicial.
 
The alleged circumstance that this statute improves the present set-up constitutes
no excuse for approving a transgression of constitutional limitations, because the
end does not justify the means. Furthermore, there is no reason to doubt that, aware
of the existing inequality of representation, and impelled by its sense of duty,
Congress will opportunely approve remedial legislation in accord with the precepts of
the Constitution.[6] (Emphasis supplied; internal citations omitted)
 
To deny the Court the exercise of its judicial review power over RA 9591 is
to contend that this Court has no power to determine whether or not there has been
a grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction on the part
of any branch or instrumentality of the Government, a duty mandated under
Section 1, Article VIII of the Constitution. Indeed, if we subscribe to
the COMELECs theory, this Court would be reduced to rubberstamping laws
creating legislative districts no matter how unreliable and non-authoritative the
population indicators Congress used to justify their creation. There can be no surer
way to render meaningless the limitation in Section 5(3), Article VI of the 1987
Constitution.[7]
Second. Under Executive Order No. 135 (EO 135), the population indicators
Congress used to measure Malolos Citys compliance with the constitutional
limitation are unreliable and non-authoritative. On Mirandas Certification, (that the
projected population of the [City] of Malolos will be 254,030 by the year 2010
using the population growth rate of 3.78[%] between 1995 and 2000), this fell
short of EO 135s requirements that (a) for intercensal years, the certification
should be based on a set of demographic projections and estimates declared
official by the National Statistical and Coordination Board (NSCB); (b)
certifications on intercensal population estimates will be as of the middle of every
year; and (c) certifications based on projections or estimates must be issued by
the NSO Administrator or his designated certifying officer. Further, using
Mirandas own growth rate assumption of 3.78%, Malolos Citys population as of 1
August 2010 will only be 249,333, below the constitutional threshold of 250,000
(using as base Malolos Citys population as of 1 August 2007
which is 223,069). That Miranda issued his Certification by authority of the NSO
administrator does not make the document reliable as it neither makes Miranda the
NSO Administrators designated certifying officer nor cures the Certification of its
fatal defects for failing to use demographic projections and estimates declared
official by the NSCB or make the projection as of the middle of 2010.
Nor are the 2007 Census of Population PMS 3 Progress Enumeration
Report, the Certification of the City of Malolos Water District, dated 31 July 2008
and the Certification of the Liga ng Barangay, dated 22 August 2008, reliable
because none of them qualifies as authoritative population indicator under EO 135.
The 2007 Census of Population PMS 3 Progress Enumeration Report merely
contains preliminary data on the population census of Bulacan which were
subsequently adjusted to reflect actual population as indicated in the 2007 Census
results (showing Malolos Citys population at 223,069). The COMELEC, through
the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), adopts Malolos Citys claim that the
2007 census for Malolos City was sloped to make it appear that come Year 2010,
the population count for Malolos would still fall short of the constitutional
requirement.[8] This unbecoming attack by the governments chief counsel on the
integrity of the processes of the governments census authority has no place in our
judicial system. The OSG ought to know that absent convincing proof of so-called
data sloping, the NSO enjoys the presumption of the regularity in the performance
of its functions.
 
The Certification of the City of Malolos Water District fares no better. EO 135
excludes from its ambit certifications from a public utility gathered incidentally in
the course of pursuing its business. To elevate the water districts so-called
population census to the level of credibility NSO certifications enjoy is to render
useless the existence of NSO. This will allow population data incidentally gathered
by electric, telephone, sewage, and other utilities to enter into legislative processes
even though these private entities are not in the business of generating statistical
data and thus lack the scientific training, experience and competence to handle,
collate and process them.
 
Similarly, the Certification of the Liga ng Barangay is not authoritative
because much like the Malolos City Water District, the Liga ng Barangay is not
authorized to conduct population census, much less during off-census years. The
non-NSO entities EO 135 authorizes to conduct population census are local
government units (that is, province, city, municipality or barangay)
subject to the prior approval of the NSCB and
 
under the technical supervision of the NSO from planning to data processing.[9]
 
By presenting these alternative population indicators with their widely
divergent population figures,[10] the COMELEC unwittingly highlighted the danger
of relying on non-NSO authorized certifications. EO 135s stringent standards
ensuring reliability of population census cannot be diluted as these data lie at the
core of crucial government decisions and, in this case, the legislative function of
enforcing the constitutional mandate of creating congressional districts in cities
with at least 250,000 constituents.
 
There can be no doubt on the applicability of EO 135 to test the
constitutionality of RA 9591. The COMELEC invoked EO 135 to convince the
Court of the credibility and authoritativeness of Mirandas certificate.[11] It is hardly
alien for the Court to adopt standards contained in a parallel statute to fill gaps in
the law in the absence of an express prohibition.[12] Indeed, one is hard-pressed to
find any distinction, statistically speaking, on the reliability of an NSO certification
of a citys population for purposes of creating its legislative district and for
purposes of converting it to a highly-urbanized or an independent component city.
[13]
 Congress itself confirms the wisdom and relevance of EO 135s paradigm of
privileging NSO certifications by mandating that compliance with the population
requirement in the creation and conversion of local government units shall be
proved exclusively by an NSO certification.[14] Unquestionably, representation in
Congress is no less important than the creation of local government units in
enhancing our democratic institutions, thus both processes should be subject to the
same stringent standards.
 
Third. Malolos City is entitled to representation in Congress only if, before
the 10 May 2010 elections, it breaches the 250,000 population mark following the
mandate in Section 3 of the Ordinance appended to the 1987 Constitution that any
city whose population may hereafter increase to more than two hundred fifty
thousand shall be entitled in the immediately following election to at least one
Member. COMELEC neither alleged nor proved that Malolos City is in
compliance with Section 3 of the Ordinance.
 
Fourth. Aside from failing to comply with Section 5(3), Article VI of the
Constitution on the population requirement, the creation by RA 9591 of a
legislative district for Malolos City, carving the city from the former First
Legislative District, leaves the town of Bulacan isolated from the rest of the
geographic mass of that district.[15] This contravenes the requirement in Section
5(3), Article VI that each legislative district shall comprise, as far as
practicable, contiguous, compact, and adjacent territory. It is no argument to say,
as the OSG does, that it was impracticable for Congress to create a district with
contiguous, compact, and adjacent territory because Malolos city lies at the center
of the First Legislative District. The geographic lay-out of the First Legislative
District is not an insuperable condition making compliance with Section 5(3)
impracticable. To adhere to the constitutional mandate, and thus maintain fidelity
to its purpose of ensuring efficient representation, the practicable alternative for
Congress was to include the municipality of Bulacan in Malolos Citys legislative
district. Although unorthodox, the resulting contiguous and compact district fulfills
the constitutional requirements of geographic unity and population
floor, ensuring efficient representation of the minimum mass of constituents.
 
WHEREFORE, the Supplemental Motion for Reconsideration of
respondent Commission on Elections dated 22 February 2010 is DENIED WITH
FINALITY. Let no further pleadings be allowed.
 
SO ORDERED.