Constitutional Law 1 (JD)

Tuesday (6:00PM – 9:00PM)

Atty. Madel P. Villaroman-Fiel

LOCAL GOVERNMENT level of autonomy that would guarantee the
support of their own cultural identity, the
Sections 1 to 21 of Article X of the 1987 establishment of priorities by the community's
Philippine Constitution internal decision-making processes and the
management of collective matters by
Republic Act No. 7160, as amended by themselves.
Republic Acts No. 8553 and 8524, otherwise
known as the Local Government Code of 1991 Regional autonomy refers to the granting of
basic internal government powers to the people
of a particular area or region with least control
NATURE OF AUTONOMY AND and supervision from the central government.
DECENTRALIZATION
The objective of the autonomy system is to
Arsadi M. Disomangcop, et al. vs. The permit determined groups, with a common
Secretary of the Department of Public tradition and shared social-cultural
Works and Highways, et al., G.R. No. characteristics, to develop freely their ways of
149848, November 25, 2004 life and heritage, exercise their rights, and be
in charge of their own business.
Regional Autonomy Under R.A. 6734 (ARMM
Organic Act) and R.A. 9054 (Amendment) A necessary prerequisite of autonomy is
decentralization.
The 1987 Constitution mandates regional
autonomy to give a bold and unequivocal Decentralization is a decision by the central
answer to the cry for a meaningful, effective government authorizing its subordinates,
and forceful autonomy. The idea behind the whether geographically or functionally defined,
Constitutional provisions for autonomous to exercise authority in certain areas. It
regions is to allow the separate development of involves decision-making by subnational units.
peoples with distinctive cultures and It is typically a delegated power, wherein a
traditions. larger government chooses to delegate certain
authority to more local governments.
Autonomy, as a national policy, recognizes the Federalism implies some measure of
wholeness of the Philippine society in its decentralization, but unitary systems may also
ethnolinguistic, cultural, and even religious decentralize. Decentralization differs
diversities. It strives to free Philippine society intrinsically from federalism in that the sub-
of the strain and wastage caused by the units that have been authorized to act (by
assimilationist approach. delegation) do not possess any claim of right
against the central government.
Regional autonomy is the degree of self-
determination exercised by the local Decentralization comes in two forms—
government unit vis-à-vis the central deconcentration and devolution.
government. Deconcentration is administrative in nature; it
involves the transfer of functions or the
In international law, the right to self- delegation of authority and responsibility from
determination need not be understood as a the national office to the regional and local
right to political separation, but rather as a offices. This mode of decentralization is also
complex net of legal-political relations between referred to as administrative decentralization.
a certain people and the state authorities. It
ensures the right of peoples to the necessary
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Tuesday (6:00PM – 9:00PM)
Atty. Madel P. Villaroman-Fiel

Devolution, on the other hand, connotes becomes accountable not to the central
political decentralization, or the transfer of authorities but to its constituency.
powers, responsibilities, and resources for the
performance of certain functions from the
central government to local government units. POLICE POWER OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT
This is a more liberal form of decentralization UNITS
since there is an actual transfer of powers and
responsibilities. It aims to grant greater Valentino L. Legaspi vs. City of Cebu,
autonomy to local government units in et al., G.R. No. 159110, December 10,
cognizance of their right to self-government, to 2013
make them self-reliant, and to improve their
administrative and technical capabilities. The goal of the decentralization of powers to
the local government units (LGUs) is to ensure
This Court elucidated the concept of autonomy the enjoyment by each of the territorial and
in Limbona vs. Mangelin, thus: political subdivisions of the State of a genuine
and meaningful local autonomy. To attain the
Autonomy is either decentralization of goal, the National Legislature has devolved the
administration or decentralization of power. three great inherent powers of the State to the
There is decentralization of administration LGUs. Each political subdivision is there by
when the central government delegates vested with such powers subject to
administrative powers to political subdivisions constitutional and statutory limitations.
in order to broaden the base of government
power and in the process to make local The scope of the legislative authority of the
governments "more responsive and local government is set out in Section 16, to
accountable," and "ensure their fullest wit:
development as self-reliant communities and
make them more effective partners in the Section 16. General Welfare. – Every local
pursuit of national development and social government unit shall exercise the powers
progress." At the same time, it relieves the expressly granted, those necessarily implied
central government of the burden of managing therefrom, as well as powers necessary,
local affairs and enables it to concentrate on appropriate, or incidental for its efficient and
national concerns. The President exercises effective governance, and those which are
"general supervision" over them, but only to essential to the promotion of the general
"ensure that local affairs are administered welfare.
according to law." He has no control over their
acts in the sense that he can substitute their This provision contains what is traditionally
judgments with his own. known as the general welfare clause. As
expounded in United States vs. Salaveria, 39
Decentralization of power, on the other hand, Phil 102, the general welfare clause has two
involves an abdication of political power in the branches. One branch attaches itself to the
favor of local government units declared to be main trunk of municipal authority, and relates
autonomous. In that case, the autonomous to such ordinances and regulations as may be
government is free to chart its own destiny and necessary to carry into effect and discharge the
shape its future with minimum intervention powers and duties conferred upon the
from central authorities. According to a municipal council by law. The second branch of
constitutional author, decentralization of the clause is much more independent of the
power amounts to "self-immolation," since in specific functions of the council, and authorizes
that event the autonomous government such ordinances as shall seem necessary and
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Atty. Madel P. Villaroman-Fiel

proper to provide for health, safety, prosperity government units. Once delegated, the agents
and convenience of the municipality and its can exercise only such legislative powers as are
inhabitants. conferred on them by the national lawmaking
body.
In a vital and critical way, the general welfare
clause complements the more specific powers The police power granted to local government
granted a local government. It serves as a units must always be exercised with utmost
catch-all provision that ensures that the local observance of the rights of the people to due
government will be equipped to meet any local process and equal protection of the law. Such
contingency that bears upon the welfare of its power cannot be exercised whimsically,
constituents but has not been actually arbitrarily or despotically as its exercise is
anticipated. So varied and protean are the subject to a qualification, limitation or
activities that affect the legitimate interests of restriction demanded by the respect and regard
the local inhabitants that it is well-nigh due to the prescription of the fundamental law,
impossible to say beforehand what may or may particularly those forming part of the Bill of
not be done specifically through law. To ensure Rights. Individual rights, it bears emphasis,
that a local government can react positively to may be adversely affected only to the extent
the people’s needs and expectations, the that may fairly be required by the legitimate
general welfare clause has been devised and demands of public interest or public welfare.
interpreted to allow the local legislative council Due process requires the intrinsic validity of
to enact such measures as the occasion the law in interfering with the rights of the
requires. person to his life, liberty and property.

According to Cooley: "The police power

embraces the whole system of internal LGUS’ POWER TO TAX IS NOT MERELY
regulation by which the state seeks not only to DELEGATED BUT DIRECTLY CONFERRED
preserve the public order and to prevent BY THE CONSTITUTION
offences against itself, but also to establish for
the intercourse of citizens with citizens, those Lucena D. Demaala vs. Commission
rules of good manners and good neighborhood on Audit, G.R. No. 199752, February
which are calculated to prevent the conflict of 17, 2015
rights and to insure to each the uninterrupted
enjoyment of his own, so far as it is reasonably Setting the rate of the additional levy for the
consistent with the right enjoyment of rights by special education fund at less than 1% is within
others. the taxing power of local government units. It
is consistent with the guiding constitutional
In Metropolitan Manila Development principle of local autonomy.
Authority vs. Bel-Air Village Association,Inc.,
the Court cogently observed: The power to tax is an attribute of sovereignty.
It is inherent in the state. Provinces, cities,
It bears stressing that police power is lodged municipalities, and barangays are mere
primarily in the National Legislature. It cannot territorial and political subdivisions of the
be exercised by any group or body of state. They act only as part of the sovereign.
individuals not possessing legislative power. Thus, they do not have the inherent power to
The National Legislature, however, may tax. Their power to tax must be prescribed by
delegate this power to the President and law.
administrative boards as well as the lawmaking
bodies of municipal corporations or local
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Atty. Madel P. Villaroman-Fiel

Consistent with the view that the power to tax their local fiscal autonomy. In City
does not inhere in local government units, this Government of San Pablo vs. Reyes:
court has held that a reserved temperament
must be adhered to in construing the extent of The power to tax is primarily vested in
a local government unit’s power to tax. Congress. However, in our jurisdiction, it may
be exercised by local legislative bodies, no
As explained in Icard vs. City Council of longer merely by virtue of a valid delegation as
Baguio: before, but pursuant to direct authority
conferred by Section 5, Article X of the
It is settled that a municipal corporation unlike Constitution. Thus Article X, Section 5 of the
a sovereign state is clothed with no inherent Constitution reads:
power of taxation. The charter or statute must
plainly show an intent to confer that power or Sec. 5 — Each Local Government unit shall
the municipality, cannot assume it. And the have the power to create its own sources of
power when granted is to be construed in revenue and to levy taxes, fees and charges
strictissimi juris. Any doubt or ambiguity subject to such guidelines and limitations as
arising out of the term used in granting that the Congress may provide, consistent with the
power must be resolved against the basic policy of local autonomy. Such taxes, fees
municipality. Inferences, implications, and charges shall accrue exclusively to the
deductions – all these – have no place in the Local Governments.
interpretation of the taxing power of a
municipal corporation. The important legal effect of Section 5 is that
henceforth, in interpreting statutory provision
Article X, Section 5 of the 1987 Constitution is on municipal fiscal powers, doubts will have to
the basis of the taxing power of local be resolved in favor of municipal corporations.
government units:
Similarly, in San Juan vs. Civil Service
Section 5. Each local government unit shall Commission, this court stated:
have the power to create its own sources of
revenues and to levy taxes, fees and charges We have to obey the clear mandate on local
subject to such guidelines and limitations as autonomy. Where a law is capable of two
the Congress may provide, consistent with the interpretations, one in favor of centralized
basic policy of local autonomy. Such taxes, fees, power in Malacañang and the other beneficial
and charges shall accrue exclusively to the local to local autonomy, the scales must be weighed
governments. in favor of autonomy.

The taxing power granted by constitutional fiat The Local Government Code was enacted
to local government units exists in the wider pursuant to the specific mandate of Article X,
context to "ensure the autonomy of local Section 3 of the 1987 Constitution and its
governments." requirements of decentralization. Its
provisions, including those on local taxation,
The taxing powers of local government units must be read in light of the jurisprudentially
must be read in relation to their power to effect settled preference for local autonomy.
their basic autonomy.

Consistent with the 1987 Constitution’s

declared preference, the taxing powers of local
government units must be resolved in favor of
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Tuesday (6:00PM – 9:00PM)
Atty. Madel P. Villaroman-Fiel

Congressman Hermilando I. self-government and improvement and the
Mandanas, et al. vs. Executive local administration of the affairs of the State.
Secretaty, et al., G.R. No. 199802,
July 3, 2018 Municipal corporations, being the mere
creatures of the State, are subject to the will of
One of the key features of the 1987 Congress, their creator. Their continued
Constitution is its push towards existence and the grant of their powers are
decentralization of government and local dependent on the discretion of Congress.
autonomy. Local autonomy has two facets, the
administrative and the fiscal. Fiscal autonomy A municipal corporation possesses and can
means that local governments have the power exercise the following powers and no others:
to create their own sources of revenue in First, those granted in express words; second,
addition to their equitable share in the national those necessarily or fairly implied in or
taxes released by the National Government, as incident to the powers expressly granted; third,
well as the power to allocate their resources in those essential to the declared objects and
accordance with their own priorities. Such purposes of the corporation-not simply
autonomy is as indispensable to the viability of convenient but indispensible; fourth, any fair,
the policy of decentralization as the other. reasonable doubt as to the existence of a power
is resolved by the courts against the
The share of the LGUs, heretofore known as corporation-against the existence of the
the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA), has powers.
been regularly released to the LGUs. According
to the implementing rules and regulations of In Magtajas vs. Pryce Properties Corporation,
the LGC, the IRA is determined on the basis of lnc.:
the actual collections of the National Internal
Revenue Taxes (NIRTs) as certified by the Municipal governments are only agents of the
Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR). national government. Local councils exercise
only delegated legislative powers conferred on
them by Congress as the national lawmaking
MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS AND THEIR body. The delegate cannot be superior to the
RELATIONSHIP WITH CONGRESS principal or exercise powers higher than those
of the latter. It is a heresy to suggest that the
Municipal corporations are now commonly local government units can undo the acts of
known as local governments. They are the Congress, from which they have derived their
bodies politic established by law partly as power in the first place, and negate by mere
agencies of the State to assist in the civil ordinance the mandate of the statute.
governance of the country. Their chief purpose
has been to regulate and administer the local Municipal corporations owe their origin to, and
and internal affairs of the cities, municipalities derive their powers and rights wholly from the
or districts. They are legal institutions formed legislature. It breathes into them the breath of
by charters from the sovereign power, whereby life, without which they cannot exist. As it
the populations within communities living creates, so it may destroy. As it may destroy, it
within prescribed areas have formed may abridge and control. Unless there is some
themselves into bodies politic and corporate, constitutional limitation on the right, the
and assumed their corporate names with the legislature might, by a single act, and if we can
right of continuous succession and for the suppose it capable of so great a folly and so
purposes and with the authority of subordinate great a wrong, sweep from existence all of the
municipal corporations in the State, and the
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Atty. Madel P. Villaroman-Fiel

corporation could not prevent it. We know of two forms in the Philippine setting, namely:
no limitation on the right so far as to the the decentralization of power and the
corporation themselves are concerned. They decentralization of administration.
are, so to phrase it, the mere tenants at will of
the legislature. The decentralization of power involves the
abdication of political power in favor of the
This basic relationship between the national autonomous LGUs as to grant them the
legislature and the local government units has freedom to chart their own destinies and to
not been enfeebled by the new provisions in shape their futures with minimum intervention
the Constitution strengthening the policy of from the central government. This amounts
local autonomy. Without meaning to detract to self-immolation because the autonomous
from that policy, we here confirm that LGUs thereby become accountable not to the
Congress retains control of the local central authorities but to their constituencies.
government units although in significantly
reduced degree now than under our previous On the other hand, the decentralization of
Constitutions. The power to create still administration occurs when the central
includes the power to destroy. The power to government delegates administrative powers to
grant still includes the power to withhold or the LGUs as the means of broadening the base
recall. of governmental powers and of making the
LGUs more responsive and accountable in the
True, there are certain notable innovations in process, and thereby ensure their fullest
the Constitution, like the direct conferment on development as self-reliant communities and
the local government units of the power to tax, more effective partners in the pursuit of the
which cannot now be withdrawn by mere goals of national development and social
statute. By and large, however, the national progress. This form of decentralization further
legislature is still the principal of the local relieves the central government of the burden
government units, which cannot defy its will or of managing local affairs so that it can
modify or violate it. concentrate on national concerns.

The 1987 Constitution has surely encouraged

THE EXTENT OF LOCAL AUTONOMY IN decentralization by mandating that a system of
THE PHILIPPINES decentralization be instituted through the LGC
in order to enable a more responsive and
The 1987 Constitution limits Congress' control accountable local government structure. It has
over the LGUs by ordaining in Section 25 of its also delegated the power to tax to the LGUs by
Article II that: "The State shall ensure the authorizing them to create their own sources of
autonomy of local governments." The income that would make them self-reliant. It
autonomy of the LGUs as thereby ensured does further ensures that each and every LGU will
not contemplate the fragmentation of the have a just share in national taxes as well in the
Philippines into a collection of mini-states, or development of the national wealth.
the creation of imperium in imperio. Local
autonomy recognizes the wholeness of the Decentralization can be considered as the
Philippine society in its ethnolinguistic, decision by the central government to
cultural, and even religious diversities. empower its subordinates, whether
geographically or functionally constituted, to
The constitutional mandate to ensure local exercise authority in certain areas. It involves
autonomy refers to decentralization. In its decision-making by subnational units, and is
broad or general sense, decentralization has typically a delegated power, whereby a larger
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Atty. Madel P. Villaroman-Fiel

government chooses to delegate authority to such bodies to better cope up with the needs of
more local governments.31 It is also a process, particular localities.
being the set of policies, electoral or
constitutional reforms that transfer Fiscal decentralization means that the
responsibilities, resources or authority from LGUs have the power to create their own
the higher to the lower levels of government. It sources of revenue in addition to their just
is often viewed as a shift of authority towards share in the national taxes released by the
local governments and away from the central National Government. It includes the power to
government, with total government authority allocate their resources in accordance with
over society and economy imagined as fixed. their own priorities. It thus extends to the
preparation of their budgets, so that the local
As a system of transferring authority and officials have to work within the constraints of
power from the National Government to the their budgets. The budgets are not formulated
LGUs, decentralization in the Philippines may at the national level and imposed on local
be categorized into four, namely: (1) political governments, without regard as to whether or
decentralization or devolution; (2) not they are relevant to local needs and
administrative decentralization or resources.
deconcentration; (3) fiscal decentralization;
and (4) policy or decision-making Indeed, the requirement for the automatic
decentralization. release to the LGUs of their just share in the
national taxes is but the consequence of the
Political decentralization or devolution constitutional mandate for fiscal
occurs when there is a transfer of powers, decentralization.
responsibilities, and resources from the central
government to the LOU s for the performance For sure, fiscal decentralization does not
of certain functions. It is a more liberal form of signify the absolute freedom of the LGUs to
decentralization because there is an actual create their own sources of revenue and to
transfer of powers and responsibilities. It aims spend their revenues unrestrictedly or upon
to grant greater autonomy to the LGUs in their individual whims and caprices. Congress
cognizance of their right to self-government, to has subjected the LGUs' power to tax to the
make them self-reliant, and to improve their guidelines set in Section 130 of the LGC and to
administrative and technical capabilities. It is the limitations stated in Section 133 of the
an act by which the National Government LGC.
confers power and authority upon the various
LGUs to perform specific functions and [NOTE: The concept of local fiscal autonomy
responsibilities. does not exclude any manner of intervention
by the National Government in the form of
Administrative decentralization or supervision if only to ensure that the local
deconcentration involves the transfer of programs, fiscal and otherwise, are consistent
functions or the delegation of authority and with the national goals.]
responsibility from the national office to the
regional and local offices. Consistent with this Policy or decision-making
concept, the LGC has created the Local School decentralization exists if at least one sub-
Boards, the Local Health Boards and the Local national tier of government has exclusive
Development Councils, and has transferred authority to make decisions on at least one
some of the authority from the agencies of the policy issue.
National Government, like the Department of
Education and the Department of Health, to
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Atty. Madel P. Villaroman-Fiel

In fine, certain limitations are and can be
imposed by Congress in all the forms of
decentralization, for local autonomy, whether
as to power or as to administration, is not
absolute. The LGUs remain to be the tenants of
the will of Congress subject to the guarantees
that the Constitution itself imposes.