Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
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* EN BANC.
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trict only in the “immediately following election” after the attainment of the
250,000 population.
Same; Same; National Statistics Office; National Statistics
Coordination Board (NSCB); Certifications on demographic projection can
be issued only if such projections are declared official by the National
Statistics Coordination Board (NSCB).—First, certifications on
demographic projections can be issued only if such projections are
declared official by the National Statistics Coordination Board (NSCB).
Second, certifications based on demographic projections can be issued only
by the NSO Administrator or his designated certifying officer. Third,
intercensal population projections must be as of the middle of every year.
Same; Same; Same; Same; Any population projection forming the basis
for the creation of a legislative district must be based on an official and
credible source. That is why the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) cited
Executive Order No. 135 (The Guidelines on the Issuance of Certification of
Population Sizes), otherwise the population projection would be unreliable
or speculative.—Executive Order No. 135 cannot simply be brushed aside.
The OSG, representing respondent Commission on Elections, invoked
Executive Order No. 135 in its Comment, thus: Here, based on the NSO
projection, “the population of the Municipality of Malolos will be 254,030
by the year 2010 using the population growth rate of 3.78 between 1995-
2000.” This projection issued by the authority of the NSO
Administrator is recognized under Executive Order No. 135 (The
Guidelines on the Issuance of Certification of Population Sizes), which
states: x x x (d) Certification of population size based on projections may
specify the range within which the true count is deemed likely to fall. The
range will correspond to the official low and high population projections. x
x x (f) Certifications of population size based on published census results
shall be issued by the Provincial Census Officers or by the Regional Census
Officers. Certifications based on projections or estimates, however, will be
issued by the NSO Administrator or his designated certifying officer.”
(Emphasis supplied) Any population projection forming the basis for the
creation of a legislative district must be based on an official and credible
source. That is why the OSG cited Executive Order No. 135, otherwise the
population projection would be unreliable or speculative.
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Same; Same; Same; Same; A city must first attain the 250,000
population, and thereafter, in the immediately following election, such city
shall have a district representative.—A city that has attained a population of
250,000 is entitled to a legislative district only in the “immediately
following election.” In short, a city must first attain the 250,000 population,
and thereafter, in the immediately following election, such city shall have a
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Same; Same; Same; Same; View that as the Court held in Bagabuyo v.
Commission on Elections, 573 SCRA 290 (2008), the holding of a plebiscite
is not a requirement in legislative apportionment or reapportionment; A
plebiscite is necessary only in the creation, division, merger, abolition or
alteration of boundaries of local government units.—Contrary to
petitioners’ claim, R.A. 9591 is a reapportionment bill. It does not require
the conduct of a plebiscite for its validity. As the Court held in Bagabuyo v.
Commission on Elections, 573 SCRA 290 (2008), the holding of a plebiscite
is not a requirement in legislative apportionment or reapportionment. A
plebiscite is necessary only in the creation, division, merger, abolition or
alteration of boundaries of local government units, which is not the case
here.
CARPIO, J.:
The Case
Antecedents
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1 Under Section 57 of Republic Act No. 8754, the Charter of the City of Malolos.
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2 Id.
3 Senate Journal, Session No. 49, 9 February 2009, Fourteenth Congress, p. 1557.
4 Rollo, p. 64.
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This is to certify that based on the 2000 census of population in housing census
2000 conducted by the National Statistics Office, the total population of Malolos,
Bulacan as of May 1, 2000 is 175,291.
This is to certify that the results of the census 2000 were proclaimed and declared
official by the President of the Philippines under Proclamation No. 28, dated April 18,
2001.
It is further certified that the projected population of the Municipality of Malolos
will be 254,030 by the year 2010 using the population growth rate of 3.78 between
1995 to 2000. Please note that the computation was just based on the conventional
method and not taking into account other factors that may affect the base population.
Hence, the projected population may reach more than 250,000 in consideration of the
other factors like future or past fertility, mortality, and migration within the locality
for the year 2010.
This certification is issued upon the request of Mayor Danilo A. Domingo of the
City of Malolos in connection with the proposed creation of Malolos City as a lone
congressional district of the Province of Bulacan.
By authority of the Administrator
(Sgd) ALBERTO N. MIRANDA
Regional Director
7 Section 3, Ordinance appended to the 1987 Constitution.
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9 Annex “F” of Petition, which is a copy of the 2007 Census from the National
Statistics Office.
10 There is no basis to compound the growth rate of a population over a three-year
period because the children born during the three-year period could not possibly give
birth to their own children.
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All these conflict with what the Certification states that the
population of Malolos “will be 254,030 by the year 2010.” Based on
the Certification’s own growth rate assumption, the population of
Malolos will be less than 250,000 before the 10 May 2010 elections.
Incidentally, the NSO has no published population projections for
individual municipalities or cities but only for entire regions and
provinces.11
Executive Order No. 135 cannot simply be brushed aside. The
OSG, representing respondent Commission on Elections, invoked
Executive Order No. 135 in its Comment, thus:
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11 http://www.census.gov.ph/data /sectordata/popproj_tab3r.html,accessed 22
December 2009.
12 Rollo, p. 62.
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“Any province that may be created, or any city whose population may
hereafter increase to more than two hundred fifty thousand shall be entitled
in the immediately following election to at least one Member or such
number of members as it may be entitled to on the basis of the number of its
inhabitants and according to the standards set forth in paragraph (3), Section
5 of Article VI of the Constitution. xxx.” (Emphasis supplied)
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DISSENTING OPINION
ABAD, J.:
This case is about a law that establishes a new legislative district
based on a projected population of the National Statistics Office
(NSO) to meet the population requirement of the Constitution in the
reapportionment of legislative districts.
Malolos City was 223,069. The NSO projected that, using the
established population growth rate of 3.78 percent between 1995 and
2000, its population in 2010 will be 254,030.
On May 1, 2009 Congress enacted Republic Act (R.A.) 9591, to
amend Section 57 of R.A. 8754, the charter of the City of Malolos,
making the city a separate district from the existing first legislative
district of Bulacan.
The Challenge
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1 Senate Journal, Session No. 49, February 9, 2009, Fourteenth Congress, p. 1557.
2 Dueñas, Jr. v. Commission on Elections, G.R. No. 185401, July 21, 2009.
3 113 Phil. 1, 5-6; 3 SCRA 1, 5-6 (1961).
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