EN BANC

[ GR No. 93054, Dec 04, 1990 ]

CORDILLERA REGIONAL ASSEMBLY MEMBER ALEXANDER P.

ORDILLO v. COMELEC +

DECISION

270 Phil. 183

GUTIERREZ, JR., J.:

The question raised in this petition is whether or not the province of Ifugao, being the only
province which voted favorably for the creation of the Cordillera Autonomous Region can, alone
legally and validly constitute such Region,

The antecedent facts that gave rise to this petition are as follows:

On January 30, 1990, the people of the provinces of Benguet, Mountain Province, Ifugao, Abra
and Kalinga Apayao and the city of Bagnio cast their votes in a plebiscite held pursuant to
Republic Act No. 6766 entitled "An Act Providing for an Organic Act for the Cordillera
Autonomous Region."

The official Commission on Elections (COMELEC) results of the plebiscite showed that the
creation of the Region was approved by a majority of 5,889 votes in only the Ifugao Province
and was overwhelmingly rejected by 148,676 votes in the rest of the provinces and city above-
mentioned.

Consequently, the COMELEC, on February 14, 1990, issued Resolution No. 2259 stating that
the Organic Act for the Region has been approved and/or ratified by majority of the votes cast
only in the province of Ifugao.  On the same date, the Secretary of Justice issued a memorandum
for the President reiterating the COMELEC resolution and provided:

"xxx[A]nd considering the proviso in Sec. 13(A) that only the provinces and city, voting
favorably shall be included in the CAR, the province of Ifugao being the only province which
voted favorably - then, alone, legally and validly constitutes, the CAR." (Rollo, p. 7)

As. a result of this, on March 8, 1990, Congress enacted Republic Act No. 6861 setting the
elections in the Cordillera Autonomous Region of Ifugao on the first Monday of March 1991.

Even before the issuance of the COMELEC resolution, the Executive Secretary on February 5,
1990 issued a Memorandum granting authority to wind up the affairs of the Cordillera Executive
Board and the Cordillera Regional Assembly created under Executive Order No. 220.
On March 9, 1990, the petitioner filed a petition with COMELEC to declare the non-ratification
of the Organic Act for the Region.  The COMELEC merely noted said petition.

On March 30, 1990, the President issued Administrative Order No. 160 declaring among others
that the Cordillera Executive Board and Cordillera Regional Assembly, and all the offices
created under Executive Order No. 220 were abolished in view of the ratification of the Organic
Act.

The petitioners maintain that there can be no valid Cordillera Autonomous Region in only one
.province as the Constitution and Republic Act No. 6766 require that the said Region be
composed of more than one constituent unit.

The petitioners, then, pray that the Court: (1) declare null and void COMELEC resolution No.
2259, the memorandum of the Secretary of Justice, the memorandum of the Executive Secretary,
Administrative Order No. 160, and Republic Act No. 6861 and prohibit and restrain the
respondents from implementing the same and spending public funds, for the purpose and (2)
declare Executive Order No. 220 constituting the Cordillera Executive Board and the Cordillera
Regional Assembly and other offices to be still in force and effect until another organic law for
the Autonomous Region shall have been enacted by Congress and the same is duly ratified by the
voters in the constituent units.  We treat the Comments of the respondents as an answer and
decide the case.

This petition is meritorious.

The sole province of Ifugao cannot validly constitute the Cordillera Autonomous Region.

It is explicit in Article X, Section 15 of the 1987 Constitution that:

"Section 15. There shall be created autonomous regions in Muslim Mindanao and in the
Cordillera consisting of provinces, cities, municipalities, and geographical areas, sharing
common and. Distinctive historical and cultural heritage, economic and social structures, and
other relevant characteristics within the framework of this Constitution and the national
sovereignty as well as territorial integrity of the Republic of the Philippines" (Underlining
Supplied)

The keywords provinces, cities, municipalities and geographical areas connote that "region" is to
be made up of more than one constituent unit.  The term "region" used in it's ordinary sense
means two or more provinces.  This is supported by the fact that the thirteen (13) regions into
which the Philippines is divided for administrative purposes are groupings of contiguous
provinces.  (Integrated Reorganization Plan (1972), which was made as part of the law of the
land by P.D. No. 1; P.D. No. 742) Ifugao is a province by itself.  To become part of a region, it
must join other provinces, cities, municipalities, and geographical areas.  It joins other units
because of their common and distinctive historical and cultural heritage, economic and social'
structures and other relevant characteristics. The Constitutional, requirements are not present in
this case.
The well-established rule in statutory construction that the language of the Constitution, as much
as possible should be understood in the sense it has in common use and that the words used in
constitutional-provisions are to be given their ordinary meaning except where technical term's
are employed, must then, be applied in this case.  (See Baranda v. Gustilo, 165 SCRA 757, 770,
[1988]; J.M. Tuason & Co., Inc. v. Land Tenure Administration, 31 SCRA 413, 422-423 [1970])

Aside from the 1987 Constitution, a reading of the provisions of Republic Act No. 6766
strengthens the petitioner's position that the Region cannot be constituted from only one
province.

Article III.  Sections 1 and 2 of the Statute provide that the Cordillera Autonomous Region is to
be administered by the Cordillera government consisting of the Regional Government and local
government units.  It further provides that:

"SECTION 2.  The Regional Government shall exercise powers and functions necessary for the
proper governance and development of all provinces, cities, municipalities, and barangay or ili
within the Autonomous Region xxx."

From these sections, it can be gleaned that Congress never intended that a single province may
constitute the autonomous region.  Otherwise, we would be faced with the absurd situation of
having two sets of officials, a set of provincial officials and another set of regional officials
exercising their executive and legislative powers over exactly the same small-area.

Article V. Sections 1 and 4 of Republic Act 6766 vest the legislative power in the Cordillera
Assembly whose members shall be elected from regional assembly districts apportioned among
provinces and the cities composing the Autonomous Region.

If we follow the respondent's position, the members of such Cordillera Assembly shall then be
elected only from the province of Ifugao creating an awkward predicament of having two
legislative bodies - the Cordillera Assembly and the Sangguniang Panlalawigan - exercising their
legislative powers over the province of Ifugao.  And since Ifugao is one of the smallest provinces
in the Philippines, population-wise, it would have too many government, officials for so few
people.

Article XII, Section 10 of the law creates a Regional Planning and Development Board
composed of the .Cordillera Governor, all the provincial governors and city mayors or their
representatives, two members of the Cordillera Assembly, and members representing the private
sector.  The Board has a counterpart in the provincial level called the Provincial Planning and
Development Coordinator.  The Board's functions (Article XII, Section 10, par, 2, Republic Act
No. 6766) are almost similar to those of the Provincial Coordinator's (Title Four, Chapter 3,
Article 10, Section 220 (4), Batas Pambansa Big. 337 - Local Government Code), If it takes only
one person in the provincial level to perform such functions while on the other hand it takes an
entire Board to perform almost the same tasks in the regional level, it could only mean that a
larger area must be covered at the regional level.  The respondent's theory of the Autonomous
Region being made up of a single province must, therefore, fail.
Article XXI, Section 13 (B) (c) alloting the huge amount of Ten Million Pesos (P10,000,000,00)
to the Regional Government for its initial organizational requirements can not be construed as
funding only a lone and small province.

These sections of Republic Act No. 6766 show that a one province Cordillera Autonomous
Region was never contemplated by the law creating it.

The province of Ifugao makes .up only 11% of the total population of the areas enumerated in
Article I, Section 2 (b) of Republic Act No. 6766 which include Benguet, Mountain Province,
Abra, Kalinga-Apayao and Baguio City.  It has the second smallest, number of inhabitants from
among the provinces and city above mentioned.  The Cordillera population is distributed in
round figures as follows: Abra, 185,000; Benguet, 486,000; Ifugao, 149,000; Kalinga - Apayao,
214,000; Mountain Province, 116,000; and Baguio City, 183,000; Total population of these five
provinces and one city; .1,332,000 according to the 1990 Census (Manila Standard, September
30, 1990. p. 14)

There are other provisions of Republic Act No. 6766 which are either violated or which cannot
be complied, with.  Section 16 of Article V calls for a Regional Commission on Appointments
with the Speaker as Chairman and six (6) members .coming from different provinces and cities
in the Region.  Under the respondents view, the Commission would have a Chairman and only
one member.  It would never have a quorum.  Section 3 of Article VI calls for cabinet members,
as far as practicable, to come from various provinces and cities of the Region.  Section 1 of
Article VII creates a system of tribal courts for the various indigenous cultural communities of
the Region.  Section 9 of Article XV requires the development of a common regional language
based upon the various languages and dialects in the region which regional language in turn is
expected to enrich the national language.

The entirety of Republic Act No. 6766 creating the Cordillera Autonomous Region is infused
with provisions which rule against the sole province of Ifugao constituting the Region.

To contemplate the situation .envisioned by the respondent would not only violate the letter and
intent of the Constitution and Republic Act No. 6766 but would also be impractical and illogical.

Our decision in Abbas, et al. v. COMELEC (G.R. No. 89651, November 10, 1989), is not
applicable in the case at bar contrary to the view of the Secretary of Justice.

The Abbas case laid down the rule on the meaning of majority in the phrase "by majority of the
vote's cast by the constituent units called for the purpose" found in the Constitution, Article X,
Section 18.  It stated:

xxx                xxx                   xxx

"xxx [I]t is thus, clear that what is required by the Constitution is simple majority of votes
approving the Organic Act in individual constituent units and not a double majority of the votes
in all constituent units put together, as well as in 'the  individual constituent units.
This was the pronouncement, applied by the Secretary of Justice, in arriving at his conclusion
stated in his Memorandum for the President that:

xxx                xxx                   xxx

"xxx [i]t is believed that the creation of the Cordillera Autonomous Region (CAR) as mandated
by R.A. No. 6766 became effective upon its approval by the majority of the votes cast in the
province of Ifugao.  And considering the proviso in Section 13 (a) that only the provinces and
city voting favorably shall be included in the CAR, the province of Ifugao being the only
province which voted favorably - can, alone, legally and validly constitute the CAR." (Rollo" p.
40)

The plebiscites mandated by the Constitution and Republic Act. No. 6766 for the Cordillera and
Republic Act No. 6734 for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao determine.  (1)
whether there shall be an autonomous region in the Cordillera and in Muslim Mindanao and (2)
which provinces and cities, among those enumerated in the two Republic Acts, shall comprise
said Autonomous Regions.  (See III, Record of the Constitutional Commission, 487-492 [1986]).

The Abbas case established the rule to follow on which provinces and cities shall comprise the
autonomous region in Muslim Mindanao which is, consequently, the same rule to follow with
regard to the autonomous region in the Cordillera.  However, there is nothing in the Abba's
decision which deals with the issue on whether an autonomous region, in either Muslim
Mindanao or Cordillera could exist despite the fact that only one province or one city is to
constitute it.

Stated in another way, the issue in this case is whether the sole province of Ifugao can validly
and legally constitute the Cordillera Autonomous Region.  The issue is not whether the province
of Ifugao is to be included in the Cordillera Autonomous Region.  It is the first issue which the
Court answers in the instant case.

WHEREFORE, the petition is hereby GRANTED.  Resolution No. 2259 of the Commission on
Elections, insofar as it upholds the creation of an autonomous region, the February 14, 1990
memorandum of the Secretary of Justice, the February 5, 1990 memorandum of the Executive
Secretary, Administrative Order No. 160, and Republic Act. No. 6861 are declared null and void
while Executive Order No. 220 is declared to be still in force and effect until properly repealed
or amended.

SO ORDERED.

Fernan, C.J., Narvasa, Melencio-Herrera, Cruz, Paras, Gancayco, Padilla, Bidin, Sarmiento,
Grino-Aquino, Medialdea, and Regalado, JJ., concur.