-CASE DIGEST -
SUBJECT: LAW ON PUBLIC CORPORATION
ALEXANDER P. ORDILLO v Commission on Elections
G.R. No. 93054
December 4, 1990
Topic:
Issues on the creation of Cordillera Autonomous Region
FACTS: On January 30, 1990, the people of
the provinces of Benguet, Mountain Province, Ifugao, Abra and Kalinga-Apayao
and the City of Baguio 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.
The petitioner filed a petition with
COMELEC to declare the non-ratification of the Organic Act for the Region. 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.
ISSUE: 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.
RULING: No. The sole province of Ifugao
cannot validly constitute the Cordillera Autonomous Region.
It is explicit in Article X, Section 15
of the 1987 Constitution. 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 its 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. 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.
Article III, Sections 1 and 2 of Republic
Act No. 6766 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 ”
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.
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