CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY 1.

Lambino is not able to fulfil the

requirements of the people’s
- Can constituent assembly be
initiative law because it can only
amended by people?
cater to amendments and not
- Can you interchange constituent
revisions.
assembly and constituent
- Why does the court say that? The
convention?
propose changes that they wanted to
No. cite distinction.
have, why does the court say it is a
- Who are the people that would
revision or not?
compose constituent assembly
Because they tested the petition in
- Constituent convention who would
two parts test “qualitative and
compose that
quantitative test”
- LAMBINO
- What state in the united states did
- 3 modes of proposing amendments
they derived it from? It is the ruling
and revision
of the SC in one
- Can people directly propose
- What is qualitative and quantitative?
amendments nowadays or does it
- As discuss by the court in the case of
require a specific law?
Lambino v. COMELEC. QUALITATIVE
Art. 17 of the constitution is not self-
TEST BASED ON REVISION because it
executory (requires an enabling law
alters
coming from congress or legislative
- Why does it alter, ano ang alteration
act or statute before it becomes
na ginagawa ng proposed changes.
active for people to use that because
You tell me what are the proposals
it is dormant at first) (aside from
and how it alters and what does it
people’s initiative, political dynasty
alter?
must be define by congress). At 1987
It alters the form of government from
the Philippine constitution was
presidential to …
ratified on February 2 note that the
How does it alter, why would it alter,
people cannot directly propose
paano?
amendments to people’s initiative
because the constitution was very
If you change one based on
exquisite that
qualitative test, be considered as
- Santiago vs. COMELEC
revision because of its impact. So you
- Why is it insufficient enough
tell me what is the impact of
Because it does not give importance
changing from presidential to
to the local
parliamentary
Absence of subtitle
- The checks and balance from the
- What happen to the case of Lambino
1987 constitution would drastically
Wants to amend the constitution
change because the executive and
- What is the difference of bicameral
legislative merged as one
and unicameral parliamentary?
- Because you are altering the very
- What about presidential to
structure of our government and that
parliamentary?
is considered in a qualitative test as a
- Did the court in Lambino say people’s
revision
initiative is a sufficient law, RA 6735
- Not all quantitative changes would
insufficient. There is no need to
result in a revision. Example, you
revisit/not necessary the case of
would like to change the name of
Santiago
“Philippines” in the constitution to
 “Maharlika” it would not amount to a Assuming that in spratly islands there are
revision despite the fact that it could shrubs, can that be possible?
involve an amount of 50 word change
- no. it should not be depend on the
in the constitution because it will not
outside resources or purely extractive
change drastically the system of
in nature. You need a natural
government.
condition that can sustain life to
In the case of Lambino, assuming that there flourish. Human life. Human
is a sufficient law. Lambino failed to meet habitation. Create a community of
that requirement that amendments proposal people.
via people’s initiative should be restricted
What are the conditions to sustain human
only to amendments and not to revisions
life?
because what the proposal of Lambino,
essentially provide is in a form of a revision. - Water (drinkable or potable), food,
Therefore, even if meron kang sufficient law. - In the island of south china sea, not
That would not really pass constitutional one of them can be a source of
scrutiny because that could only be done potable water.
through constituent assembly and - And that is the argument of the
constitutional convention. Philippines filed a case against china.
- We want all these islands, to
considered not as an islands that can
What are the other reasons of the court why sustain human habitation but as mere
it did not decide to revisit the ruling in the rocks and why is it important?
case of Santiago vs. COMELEC? On the phase - You may have a potable water by
of the petition, what is lacking? collecting rain drops but what about
food?
- They deemed that Lambino’s petition
- How can you have livestock there? So
did not follow the provided rules in
that is the reason why you cannot
RA 6735
establish state in outer space.
What were the defects?
The third element of state is Government.
What is government? As a requirement of
statehood
THE STATE
What is the definition of a government of the
I decided to go to the pacific and found a 50 Philippines and where can you find it?
sqm island and I bought with me tons of
cement and expanded that island to - Found in Revised Administrative Code
eventually become a 1,000 sqm island. I 1987, Section 2 definition
bought with me my kabarangays, we ‘The Government of the Philippine
established a government. We had our flag. Islands’ is a term which refers to the
We passed laws. Will that suffice, can that be corporate governmental entity
considered as a state? through which the functions of
government are exercised throughout
- No. because it needs resources and it the Philippine Islands, including, save
should sustain life either a stable as the contrary appears from the
community of people or economic context, the various arms through
activity. which political authority is made
effective in said Islands, whether
 pertaining to the central Government
or to the provincial or municipal
branches or other form of local
government.”

Is there a distinction between recognition of

state vis-à-vis the recognition of government

Can you give me an example where there is

NO problem in recognizing a state but there
is a problem of recognizing the government?

- Example is the case of Cory Aquino.

Initially there is an issue whether it
would be recognized as a legitimate
government but eventually the
supreme court …. Because they took
oath for the president back then after
being reinstated there was no issue
already. De Jure and de facto right?
From the point of view of the
Marcoses, the de jure government
was his government.
- In the case of Afghanistan we have an
example, where there is an
Afghanistan (we know that there is a
state) but as far as the government is
concerned there is an issue whether
who is the legitimate government is.