Aldaba vs. COMELEC, G.R. No. 188078, January 25, 2010
Facts: This case is an original action
for Prohibition to declareunconstitutional, R.A. 9591 which creates a
legislative district for the City of Malolos, Bulacan. Allegedly, the R.A.
violates the minimum population requirement for the creation of a legislative
district in a city. Before the May 1, 2009, the province of Bulacan was represented
in Congress through 4 legislative districts. Before the
passage of the Act through House Bill 3162 (later converted to House Bill 3693)
and Senate Bill 1986, Malolos City had a population of 223, 069 in 2007.
House
Bill 3693 cites the undated Certification, as requested to be issued to Mayor
Domingo (then Mayor of Malolos), by Region III Director
Miranda of NSO that the population of Malolos will be as projected, 254,030 by
the year 2010.
Petitioners
contended that R.A. 9591 is unconstitutional for failing to meet the
minimum population threshold of 250,000 for a city to meritrepresentative
in Congress.
Issue: Whether or not R.A. 9591, “Án act
creating a legislative district for the City of Malolos, Bulacan”
is unconstitutional as petitioned. And whether the City of Malolos
has at least 250,000 actual or projected.
Held: It was declared by the
Supreme Court that the R.A. 9591 isunconstitutional for being
violative of Section 5 (3), Article VI of the 1987 Constitution and Section 3
of the Ordinance appended to the 1987 Constitution on the
grounds that, as required by the 1987 Constitution, a city must have at least
250,000 population. In relation with this, Regional Director Miranda issued a
Certification which is based on the demographic projections, was declared
without legal effect because the Regional Director has no basis and no
authority to issue the Certification based on the following statements
supported by Section 6 of E.O. 135 as signed by President
Fidel V. Ramos, which provides:
The certification
on demographic projection can be issued only if such are declared official by
the Nat’l Statistics Coordination Board. In this case, it was not stated
whether the document have been declared official by the NSCB.
The
certification can be issued only by the NSO Administrator or his designated
certifying officer, in which case, the Regional Director of Central
Luzon NSO is unauthorized.
The
population projection must be as of the middle of the year, which in this case,
the Certification issued by Director Miranda was undated.
It was
also computed that the correct figures using the growth rate, even if
compounded, the Malolos population of 223,069 as of August 1, 2007 will grow to
only 249,333 as of August 1, 2010.
It was
emphasized that the 1935 Constitution, that this Court ruled that the aim of
legislative reappointment is to equalize the population and voting power among
districts.
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