THE progressive Makabayan bloc has filed today a petition to the Supreme Court seeking a declaration of the presidential certification of the Maharlika Investment Fund Bill and its approval by the House of Representatives on Third Reading as unconstitutional and invalid.
In addition, the group is also requesting the Supreme Court to establish guidelines for the use of Presidential Certification under Article VI, Section 26 (2) of the 1987 Constitution, to ensure that this presidential power is exercised in accordance with the Constitution’s intent and spirit.
The petitioners assert that there has been a long history of abuse of the presidential power to certify proposed legislation as urgent, despite the absence of a “public emergency or calamity” as mandated by the 1987 Constitution, by several past administrations and even by the present Marcos Jr. government. This trend must come to an end.
As a general rule, the Constitution clearly stipulates that a proposed bill must pass through three (3) separate readings on three (3) separate days to become a law, with the exception being when the President certifies the urgency of immediate enactment of a proposed legislation to address a public emergency or calamity.
As this power is an exception to the constitutional rule, it must be strictly interpreted in favor of the rule. Presidential certification of urgency must only be used in exceptional situations where a public emergency or calamity requires the immediate passage of a law.
The petitioners are not asking for the President to be powerless in the face of public emergencies or calamities. Rather, they are seeking for the exercise of a power that would infringe on the constitutional duties and processes of Congress to be exercised only when a clearly defined emergency or calamity requires the curtailment of these processes.
Also, when the President certifies a bill as urgent in one (1) house of Congress but not in the other, this constitutes a distorted and a grave abuse of discretion in the exercise of presidential power under Article VI, Section 26 (2). The President is clearly circumventing the legislative process in the other house without certifying the bill as urgent.
This is the case with the certification of the Maharlika Investment Fund bill in the House, which was certified as urgent for “establishing a sustainable national investment fund as a mechanism for strengthening investment activities and driving economic growth and social development.”
The petitioners assert that this certification constitutes a grave abuse of discretion as there was no similar certification issued addressed to the Senate.
