Datu Abas Kida v. Senate (2012)

Note: This digest focuses only on the issue of quorom

Facts: Constitutionality of RA 10153 which:

o postponed the regional elections in ARMM which were scheduled to be held on the second Monday of August 2011 to the second Monday of May 2013

o in order for the ARMM elections to be synchronized with Philippine national elections

o Recognized the Presidents power to appoint OICs to temporarily assume these positions upon the expiration of the terms of the elected officials

Datu Kida, et al, alleged that RA 10153 is invalid because it did not conform to the voting requirements set forth by RA 9054, the organic act which created the ARMM, which states that:

Art. 17, Sec1. Consistent with the provisions of the Constitution, this Organic Act may be reamended or revised by the Congress of the Philippines upon a vote of two-thirds (2/3) of the Members of the House of Representatives and of the Senate voting separately.

o This means that the law that created the ARMM may be amended or revised only upon 2/3 vote of the Congress and Senate

SC declared the 2/3 vote requirement or the supermajority requirement is unconstitutional as only a majority vote is required by the Constitution for Congress to have a quorum and to pass, amend, revise law

ISSUE: WON the 2/3 voting requirement set forth by RA 9054 is unconstitutional? - YES

HELD: Supermajority vote requirement makes RA No. 9054 an irrepealable law Under our Constitution, each House of Congress has the power to approve bills by a

mere majority vote, provided there is quorum. In requiring all laws which amend RA No. 9054 to comply with a higher voting

requirement than the Constitution provides (2/3 vote), Congress, which enacted RA No. 9054, clearly violated the very principle which we sought to establish in Duarte.

To reiterate, the act of one legislature is not binding upon, and cannot tie the hands of, future legislatures

Section 1, Article XVII of RA 9054 erects a high vote threshold for each House of Congress to surmount, effectively and unconstitutionally, taking RA 9054 beyond the reach of Congress amendatory powers.

One Congress cannot limit or reduce the plenary legislative power of succeeding Congresses by requiring a higher vote threshold than what the Constitution requires to enact, amend or repeal laws.

No law can be passed fixing such a higher vote threshold because Congress has no power, by ordinary legislation, to amend the Constitution