G.R. No. 160261. November 10, 2003 Digest (B)

FRANCISCO VS.
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
G.R. No. 160261. November 10, 2003
Carpio Morales, J.
FACTS:
On 28 November 2001, the 12th Congress of the House of Representatives adopted and approved
the Rules of Procedure in Impeachment Proceedings, superceding the previous House Impeachment
Rules approved by the 11th Congress. On 22 July 2002, the House of Representatives adopted a
Resolution, which directed the Committee on Justice "to conduct an investigation, in aid of legislation,
on the manner of disbursements and expenditures by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the
Judiciary Development Fund (JDF). On 2 June 2003, former President Joseph E. Estrada filed an
impeachment complaint (first impeachment complaint) against Chief Justice Hilario G. Davide Jr. and
seven Associate Justices of the Supreme Court for "culpable violation of the Constitution, betrayal of
the public trust and other high crimes." The complaint was endorsed by House Representatives, and
was referred to the House Committee on Justice on 5 August 2003 in accordance with Section 3(2) of
Article XI of the Constitution. The House Committee on Justice ruled on 13 October 2003 that the first
impeachment complaint was "sufficient in form," but voted to dismiss the same on 22 October 2003
for being insufficient in substance. Four months and three weeks since the filing of the first complaint
or on 23 October 2003, a day after the House Committee on Justice voted to dismiss it, the second
impeachment complaint was filed with the Secretary General of the House by House Representatives
against Chief Justice Hilario G. Davide, Jr., founded on the alleged results of the legislative inquiry
initiated by above-mentioned House Resolution. The second impeachment complaint was
accompanied by a "Resolution of Endorsement/Impeachment" signed by at least 1/3 of all the
Members of the House of Representatives. Various petitions for certiorari, prohibition, and mandamus
were filed with the Supreme Court against the House of Representatives, et. al., most of which
petitions contend that the filing of the second impeachment complaint is unconstitutional as it violates
the provision of Section 5 of Article XI of the Constitution that "[n]o impeachment proceedings shall be
initiated against the same official more than once within a period of one year."
ISSUES:
Whether or not the power of judicial review extends to those arising from impeachment proceedings.
HELD:
The Court's power of judicial review is conferred on the judicial branch of the government in Section 1,
Article VIII of our present 1987 Constitution. The "moderating power" to "determine the proper
allocation of powers" of the different branches of government and "to direct the course of government
along constitutional channels" is inherent in all courts as a necessary consequence of the judicial
power itself, which is "the power of the court to settle actual controversies involving rights which are
legally demandable and enforceable." As indicated in Angara v. Electoral Commission, judicial review
is indeed an integral component of the delicate system of checks and balances which, together with
the corollary principle of separation of powers, forms the bedrock of our republican form of
government and insures that its vast powers are utilized only for the benefit of the people for which it
serves. The separation of powers is a fundamental principle in our system of government. It obtains
not through express provision but by actual division in our Constitution. Each department of the
government has exclusive cognizance of matters within its jurisdiction, and is supreme within its own
sphere. But it does not follow from the fact that the three powers are to be kept separate and distinct
that the Constitution intended them to be absolutely unrestrained and independent of each other. The
Constitution has provided for an elaborate system of checks and balances to secure coordination in
the workings of the various departments of the government. And the judiciary in turn, with the
Supreme Court as the final arbiter, effectively checks the other departments in the exercise of its
power to determine the law, and hence to declare executive and legislative acts void if violative of the
Constitution.
The major difference between the judicial power of the Philippine Supreme Court and that of the U.S.
Supreme Court is that while the power of judicial review is only impliedly granted to the U.S. Supreme
Court and is discretionary in nature, that granted to the Philippine Supreme Court and lower courts, as
expressly provided for in the Constitution, is not just a power but also a duty, and it was given an
expanded definition to include the power to correct any grave abuse of discretion on the part of any
government branch or instrumentality. There are also glaring distinctions between the U.S.
Constitution and the Philippine Constitution with respect to the power of the House of Representatives
over impeachment proceedings. While the U.S. Constitution bestows sole power of impeachment to
the House of Representatives without limitation, our Constitution, though vesting in the House of
Representatives the exclusive power to initiate impeachment cases, provides for several limitations to
the exercise of such power as embodied in Section 3(2), (3), (4) and (5), Article XI thereof. These
limitations include the manner of filing, required vote to impeach, and the one year bar on the
impeachment of one and the same official. The people expressed their will when they instituted the
above-mentioned safeguards in the Constitution. This shows that the Constitution did not intend to
leave the matter of impeachment to the sole discretion of Congress. Instead, it provided for certain
well-defined limits, or "judicially discoverable standards" for determining the validity of the exercise of
such discretion, through the power of judicial review. There is indeed a plethora of cases in which this
Court exercised the power of judicial review over congressional action. Finally, there exists no
constitutional basis for the contention that the exercise of judicial review over impeachment
proceedings would upset the system of checks and balances. Verily, the Constitution is to be
interpreted as a whole and "one section is not to be allowed to defeat another." Both are integral
components of the calibrated system of independence and interdependence that insures that no
branch of government act beyond the powers assigned to it by the Constitution.

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FRANCISCO VS.

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