Concept of Locus Standi

ARTICLES
Songs, Singers and Shadows:

Revisiting Locus Standi in Light of the
People Power Provisions of the 1987 Constitution
Rene B. Gorospe*
Outline
Judicial Power and the Separation of Powers

The Issue of Locus Standi
Locus Standi of Various Suitors
1) Citizens
2) Taxpayers
3) Legislators
4) Voters
5) Political Parties
6) Associations and Organizations
7) Local Government Units
Transcendental or Paramount Importance Cases
The People Power Revolution of 1986
People Empowerment Provisions of the
1987 Constitution
1. Initiative and Referendum
2. Political Dynasties Undesirable
3. Term Limits
4. Proclamation of Martial Law or Suspension of the Privilege of
the Writ of Habeas Corpus and Citizen’s Suits
5. Presidential Health and People’s Right to Information
6. Impeachment Complaints by Individuals
* Member, Faculty of Civil Law, University of Santo Tomas; Institute of Law, Far
Eastern University; and, College of Law, Philippine Christian University.

RENE B. GOROSPE
7. Non-Governmental Organizations
8. Party-List System
9. Policy of Transparency
10. Expanded Judicial Power
11. Other Considerations
People Empowerment and Locus Standi

Locus Standi: Revisit, Review, and Reformulation
Shadows Past and Present Lights
•
Each man’s death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.1
I n a civilized world where disputes and other conflicts are supposed

to be resolved by resort to the judicial organs instead of seeking
results through brawn, fate or chance, the courts assume great import-
ance.2 If men and women are not to go back to the ways of the rough
and wild days, taking matters into their own hands, then they must
be assured that the governmental structure designed to settle their
differences could be relied upon to provide the vindication of their
rights and the delivery of the justice they seek. This applies both in
their personal interrelationship with one another and in their dealings
1 John Donne
2 “In a free society, controversies are heard and settled under the rule of law in
the forum of the courts of justice. It is one of the virtues of our system of government that
if a person feels that he has been aggrieved, he does not have to take the law into his
own hands or resort to the use of force for the vindication of his injury. The courts are
there to hear and act on his complaint. The right to litigate is an escape valve to relieve
the pressures of personal disagreements that might otherwise explode into physical
confrontation. It is necessary not only for upholding one’s claim when they are unjustly
denied but also for the maintenance of peace if not goodwill among incipient antagonists.
Without the right to litigate, conflicting claims cannot be examined and resolved in
accordance with one of the primary purposes of government, which is to provide for a
just and orderly society.” (Que v. Court of Appeals, 169 SCRA 137 [1989], at 150)
UST LAW REVIEW, Vol. LI, AY 2006-2007

LOCUS STANDI
with the government, specially in a society that prides itself on being

a democratic and republican state.3
Republicanism means that the people are the sovereign and the
government exists for their sake, not the other way around. 4 And this
should all the more be true in a nation whose constitution added the
emphatic word “democratic” to its old formulation of the policy on
republicanism.5 Living in a republican state signifies that the people have
to surrender part of their sovereignty to the government as they could
not all rule and manage the State. They do retain the ultimate power,
though. And to what extent they keep part of it may vary, depending
on the extent to which they may have yielded their authority for the
more efficient management of the State. 6 Generally, that might mean
that the people exercise their authority basically only through their right
of suffrage where they are given the chance to determine who are to
hold the reins of the government in the meantime. Thereafter, they
would have to trust those in government to do what they are supposed
3 “The Philippines is a democratic and republican State. Sovereignty resides in

the people and all government authority emanates from them.” (Const., Art. II, §1; Unless
otherwise specified, all references to the Constitution are to the 1987 Charter.)
4 “The prime duty of the Government is to serve and protect the people.” (Const.,
Art. II, §4)
5 In his dissenting opinion in Lambino v. Commission on Elections, G.R. Nos. 174153
and 174299, 25 October 2006, at 46-46, Advance Sheets, Justice (now, Chief ) Puno noted
that the deliberations of the Commission that drafted the 1987 Constitution added the
word “democratic” to emphasize people power.
6 “Although by their constitutions the people have delegated the exercise of sove-
reign powers to the several departments, they have not thereby divested themselves of the
sovereignty. They retain in their own hands, so far as they have thought it needful to do so,
a power to control the governments they create, and the three departments are responsible
to and subject to be ordered, directed, changed or abolished by them. But this control and
direction must be exercised in the legitimate mode previously agreed upon. The voice of the
people, acting in their sovereign capacity, can be of legal force only when expressed at the
times and under the conditions which they themselves have prescribed and pointed out by
the Constitution, or which, consistently with the Constitution, have been prescribed and
pointed out for them by statute; and if by any portion of the people, however large, an
attempt should be made to interfere with the regular working of the agencies of govern-
ment at any other time or in any other mode than as allowed by existing law, either constitu-
tional or statutory, it would be revolutionary in character, and must be resisted and repressed
by the officers who, for the time being, represent legitimate government.” (T.M. Cooley, II
Constitutional Limitations, 8th ed. [1927], at 1349, cited by Justice Ynares-Santiago in her
separate opinion in Lambino v. Commission on Elections, G.R. Nos. 174153 and 174299, 25
October 2006, at 18, Advance Sheets)

RENE B. GOROSPE
to have been empowered to do, perform and discharge.7 If they disagree

or disapprove of what is done or not done by those they put in power,
then they would have to wait for the next electoral exercise before they
could again make their voices heard or their will manifested. Or, in the
meantime, they may also resort to the courts to question the acts of
those in power. But access to the courts is not something that the people
could just avail of every time they need to question something. There
are some constrictions, one of which is the concept of locus standi.
The Constitution which the Philippines adopted in 1987 came up
with certain provisions empowering the people in various aspects of
their relationship with their government. Notwithstanding these provi-
sions, however, the Supreme Court has not seen them as in any way
affecting the rules on standing. Should the old traditional manner of
looking at the issue of locus standi remain as they have always been, or
should these novel provisions mandate and direct a fresh and revitalized
manner of appreciating the issue consistent with the idea that the people,
under their 1987 Charter or covenant with the State, have retained more
power and have been given a greater amount of oversight and control over
the affairs of their government?
Given these considerations, the “people power” provisions, taken
together in a holistic manner, should be read to mean that the traditional
rules on locus standi should now be revisited, reexamined and eventually
modified or revised in favor of a new rule consistent with the principle
that the government under the 1987 Charter is expected and required to be
more open, responsible and accountable to the people – which underlying
philosophy translates to a greater access of the people to the courts as a
way of protecting their freedoms, vindicating their rights and recognizing
their prerogatives.
Judicial Power and the Separation of Powers
While resort to the judicial tribunals is generally the rule to resolve

certain disputes and other disagreements, not all differences are subject
7 “Public office is a public trust. Public officers and employees must at all times
be accountable to the people, serve them with utmost responsibility, integrity, loyalty, and
efficiency, act with patriotism and justice, and lead modest lives.” (Const., §1, Art. XI)

LOCUS STANDI
to the exercise of judicial power.8 A person may be injured or hurt but

would not necessarily have a judicial remedy. 9 There must be rights
that are enforceable and demandable. Thus, to properly invoke the juris-
diction of the courts to enable them to properly exercise their authority,
there is a need for a prior legislative action: (1) defining such enforceable
and demandable rights and/or prescribing remedies for violations thereof,
and, (2) determining the court with jurisdiction to hear and decide said
controversies or disputes, in the first instance and/or on appeal. 10 Like-
wise, in keeping with the principle of separation of powers, due respect
and deference must also be accorded to the acts of the other coordinate
and independent – and representative – departments of the government,
thus precluding a trigger-happy alacrity of the courts to reviewing and
examining such acts and declaring their invalidity.11
8 “[C]ourts are neither free to decide all kinds of cases dumped into their laps nor
are they free to open their doors to all parties or entities claiming a grievance. The rationale
for this constitutional requirement of locus standi is by no means trifle. It is intended ‘to
assure a vigorous adversary presentation of the case, and, perhaps more importantly to
warrant the judiciary’s overruling the determination of a coordinate, democratically
elected organ of governtment.’ It thus goes to the very essence of representative demo-
cracies.” ( Justice [now, Chief Justice] Puno, dissenting in Kilosbayan, Incorporated v.
Guingona, Jr., 232 SCRA 110 [1994], at 169)
9 In Pangilinan v. Maglaya, 225 SCRA 511 (1993), the Court observed:
“‘The citizen comes to us in quest of law but we must also give him justice.
The two are not always the same.’ Indeed they are not, and sadly so for the peti-
tioner. For ironically, the law he invokes for the protection of his right has instead
denied him the justice he seeks and deserves. This emphasizes, no less sadly, the
fallacy that for every legal wrong there is a judicial remedy. Untrue, unfortunately.
The Court is not a panacea. There are times, regrettably, when justice is shackled
by the law, and even this Court cannot break the chains.” (At 521-522; Emphasis
supplied)
10 Lopez v. Roxas, 17 SCRA 756 (1966), at 761.
11 “The doctrine of separation of powers calls for the other departments being left
alone to discharge their duties as they see fit.... The legislative and executive branches are
not bound to seek [the judiciary’s] advice as to what to do or not to do. Judicial inquiry has
to be postponed in the meanwhile. It is a prerequisite that something had by then been
accomplished or performed by either branch before a court may come into the picture.”
(Tan v. Macapagal, 43 SCRA 677 [1972], at 681)
Interestingly, it has been observed: “The idea that a norm of constitutional adjudi-
cation could be lightly brushed aside on the mere supposition that an issue before the Court
is of paramount public concern does great harm to a democratic system which espouses
a delicate balance between three separate but co-equal branches of government. It is equally
of paramount public concern, certainly paramount to the survival of our democracy, that
acts of the other branches of government are accorded due respect by this Court.... Notwith-

RENE B. GOROSPE
The Constitution itself provides:

Judicial power includes the duty of the courts of justice to settle
actual controversies involving rights which are legally demandable
and enforceable, and to determine whether or not there has been a
grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction
on the part of any branch or instrumentality of the Government.12
Of significance to these discussions is the exercise by the courts of

the so-called power of judicial review whereby they are empowered to
declare acts of other departments of the government as unconstitutional
or invalid, pursuant to what the United State Supreme Court in Marbury
v. Madison declared – that “[i]t is emphatically the province and duty of
the judicial department to say what the law is.”13 In Angara v. Electoral
Commission, the Philippine Supreme Court elucidated on the power of
judicial review and its requisites:
The Constitution is a definition of the powers of government.
Who is to determine the nature, scope and extent of such powers?
The Constitution itself has provided for the instrumentality of
the judiciary as the rational way. And when the judiciary mediates
to allocate constitutional boundaries, it does not assert any
superiority over the other departments; it does not in reality nullify
or invalidate an act of the legislature, but only asserts the solemn
standing Article VIII, Section 1 of the Constitution, since the exercise of the power of
judicial review by this Court is inherently anti-democratic, this Court should exercise a
becoming modesty in acting as a revisor of an act of the executive or legislative branch.”
(Justice Kapunan, dissenting in Kilosbayan, Incorporated v. Guingona, Jr., 232 SCRA 110 (1994),
at 190)
12 Art. VIII, §1, ¶2. The extent of judicial power of the Supreme Court is more
extensively set out in Art. VIII, §5.
The pertinent provision in the U.S. Constitution provides:
“The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under
this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which shall
be made, under their Authority; – to all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public
Ministers and Consuls; – to all Cases of admiralty and maritime Jurisdiction; –
to Controversies to which the United States shall be a Party; – to Controversies
between two or more States; – between a State and Citizens of another State; –
between Citizens of different States, – between Citizens of the same State claiming
Lands under Grants of different States, and between a State, or the Citizens thereof,
and foreign States, Citizens or Subjects.” (Art. III, §2, Cl. 1)
13 5 US [1 Cranch] 137 (1803), at 73. (“[I]t was in the 1803 leading case of Marbury v.
Madison that the power of judicial review was first articulated by Chief Justice Marshall, ...”
[Francisco, Jr. v. House of Representatives, 415 SCRA 44 [2003], at 122)

LOCUS STANDI
and sacred obligation assigned to it by the Constitution to deter-

mine conflicting claims of authority under the Constitution and to
establish for the parties in an actual controversy the rights which
that instrument secures and guarantees to them. This is in truth all
that is involved in what is termed “judicial supremacy” which
properly is the power of judicial review under the Constitution.
Even then, this power of judicial review is limited to actual cases
and controversies to be exercised after full opportunity of argument
by the parties, and limited further to the constitutional question
raised or the very lis mota presented. Any attempt at abstraction
could only lead to dialectics and barren legal questions and to
sterile conclusions unrelated to actualities. Narrowed as its function
is in this manner, the judiciary does not pass upon questions of
wisdom, justice or expediency of legislation. More than that, courts
accord the presumption of constitutionality to legislative enact-
ments, not only because the legislature is presumed to abide by
the Constitution but also because the judiciary in the determination
of actual cases and controversies must reflect the wisdom and
justice of the people as expressed through their representatives in the
executive and legislative departments of the government.14
As to its proper place in the overall design of the governmental

structure, it has been said that “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.”15 It is
thus essentially a power to ensure that the other departments of govern-
ment exercise their own authority within constitutional limits and
boundaries. Nevertheless, while judicial review may generally be associated
with the judiciary’s function of checking on the other branches of the
government, it actually is a double-edged sword – it may also serve to
legitimize what has been assailed:
What cannot be too strongly stressed is that the function of judicial
review has both a positive and negative aspect. As was so convin-
cingly demonstrated by Professors Black and Murphy, the Supreme
Court can check as well as legitimate. In declaring what the law is,
it may not only nullify the acts of coordinate branches but may also
14 63 Phil. 139 (1936), at 158-159.

15 Francisco, Jr. v. House of Representatives, 415 SCRA 44 (2003), at 123-124.

RENE B. GOROSPE
sustain their validity. In the latter case, there is an affirmation that

what was done cannot be stigmatized as constitutionally deficient.
The mere dismissal of a suit of this character suffices.16
As the passage from Angara reveals, the proper exercise of judicial

review requires that, among others, there be an actual case or controversy
and that the parties must have standing or locus standi to bring up the
matter for judicial scrutiny and determination in order to avoid being
led “to dialectics and barren legal questions and to sterile conclusions
of wisdom, justice or expediency of legislation” – or to purely academic
discussions and advisory opinions.17 “The jurisdiction of this Court, even
in cases involving constitutional questions is limited by the ‘case and
controversy’ requirement of Art. VIII, §5. This requirement lies at the very
heart of the judicial function. It is what differentiates decisionmaking in
the courts from decisionmaking in the political departments of the
government and bars the bringing of suits by just any party.”18 For the
proper exercise of their power of judicial review, the courts require “a
fully developed factual record that alone can impart to [their] adjudi-
cation the impact of actuality to insure that decision-making is informed
and well-grounded.”19 Hence, the so-called requisites for the exercise of
judicial review, viz: (1) existence of an actual case and appropriate contro-
versy;20 (2) a personal and substantial interest of the party raising the
16 Occena v. Commission on Elections, 104 SCRA 1 (1981), at 7.

17 “Courts do not sit to adjudicate mere academic questions to satisfy scholarly
interest therein, however intellectually solid the problem may be. This is specially true
where the issues ‘reach constitutional dimensions, for then there comes into play regard
for the court’s duty to avoid decision of constitutional issues unless avoidance becomes
evasion.’”(Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities (PACU) v. Secretary of Educa-
tion, 97 Phil. 806 [1955], at 811)
“It is not the duty of any court to give advice or ‘directive.’ The court only decides
actual controversies involving rights legally demandable and enforceable, and to deter-
mine whether there has been grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of
jurisdiction on the part of any branch or instrumentality of the Government.” (Trans
Middle East [Phils.] Equities, Inc. v. Sandiganbayan, 499 SCRA 308 [2006], at 318)
18 Kilosbayan, Incorporated v. Morato, 250 SCRA 130 (1995), at 139.
19 Tolentino v. Secretary of Finance, 235 SCRA 630 (1994), at 686.
20 “An actual case or controversy refers to an existing case or controversy that is
appropriate or ripe for determination, not conjectural or anticipatory. The controversy
needs to be definite and concrete, bearing upon the legal relations of parties who are
pitted against each other due to their adverse legal interests.” (John Hay Peoples Alternative
Coalition v. Lim, 414 SCRA 356 [2003], at 371)

LOCUS STANDI
constitutional issue; (3) exercise of the judicial review pleaded at the

earliest opportunity;21 and, (4) constitutional issue being the lis mota of
the case.22
The Issue of Locus Standi
The second requisite, that of standing or locus standi is of parti-

cular pertinence here. Basically, the issue of standing is intended to
ensure that the party raising the constitutional issue is the proper one
and not just anybody who might be interested in the resolution of an
issue that does not directly concern him. It is a corollary to the proper
exercise of judicial power. In Kilusang Mayo Uno Labor Center v. Garcia,
Jr.,23 the Court explained:
In Lamb v. Phipps,24 we ruled that judicial power is the power
to hear and decide causes pending between parties who have the
right to sue in the courts of law and equity. Corollary to this pro-
vision is the principle of locus standi of a party litigant. One who
21 In regard to raising the constitutional issue at the earliest opportunity, it has

been held that “it is not the date of filing of the petition that determines whether the
constitutional issue was raised at the earliest opportunity. The earliest opportunity to
raise a constitutional issue is to raise it in the pleadings before a competent court that
can resolve the same, such that, ‘if it not raised in the pleadings, it cannot be considered
at the trial, and, if not considered at the trial, it cannot be considered on appeal.’”
(Matibag v. Benipayo, 380 SCRA 49 [2002], at 65)
However, failure to raise the issue before the Ombudsman is not fatal since the
requirement refers to bringing it up before a competent court that can resolve the same.
“Verily, the Ombudsman has no jurisdiction to entertain questions on the constitutionality
of a law. Thus, when petitioner raised the issue of constitutionality of Rep. Act No. 6770
before the Court of Appeals, which is the competent court, the constitutional question was
raised at the earliest opportune time.” (Estarija v. Ranada, 492 SCRA 652 (2006), at 665)
22 “It is a well-settled maxim of adjudication that an issue assailing the constitu-
tionality of a governmental act should be avoided whenever possible. Succinctly put, courts
will not touch the issue of constitutionality unless it is truly unavoidable and is the very lis
mota or crux of the controversy.” (Francisco, Jr. v. House of Representatives, 415 SCRA 44
[2003], at 153)
“This Court must avoid revisiting a ruling involving the constitutionality of a statute
if the case before the Court can be resolved on some other grounds. Such avoidance is a
logical consequence of the well-settled doctrine that courts will not pass upon the constitu-
tionality of a statute if the case can be resolved on some other grounds.” (Lambino v. Commis-
sion on Elections, G.R. Nos. 174153 and 174299, 25 October 2006, at 47, Advance Sheets)
23 239 SCRA 386 (1994), at 401.
24 22 Phil. 456 (1912).

10 RENE B. GOROSPE
is directly affected by and whose interest is immediate and substantial

in the controversy has the standing to sue. The rule therefore requires
that a party must show a personal stake in the outcome of the case
or an injury to himself that can be redressed by a favorable decision
so as to warrant an invocation of the court’s jurisdiction and to
justify the exercise of the court’s remedial powers in his behalf.
“‘Legal standing’ or locus standi has been defined as a personal

and substantial interest in the case such that the party has sustained
or will sustain direct injury as a result of the governmental act that is
being challenged.... The gist of the question of standing is whether a party
alleges ‘such personal stake in the outcome of the controversy as to
assure that concrete adverseness which sharpens the presentation of
issues upon which the court depends for illumination of difficult consti-
tutional questions.’” 25 Otherwise stated, it “means a personal and sub-
stantial interest in the case such that the party has sustained or will
sustain direct injury as a result of the government act that is being
challenged. The term ‘interest’ is material interest, an interest in issue and
to be affected by the decree, as distinguished from mere interest in the
question involved, or a mere incidental interest.”26 It is to be contrasted
with the generalized interest or grievances that the other members of
the community may have, seeking vindication of rights held in common
by all citizens27 – “the interest of the party plaintiff must be personal and
not one based on a desire to vindicate the constitutional right of some
third and unrelated party.”28
The requirement of direct and personal stake itself provides the
rule’s rationale – to assure that concrete adverseness which sharpens
the presentation of issues upon which the court so largely depends for
illumination of difficult constitutional questions.29 Further, “[t]he rationale
for this constitutional requirement of locus standi is by no means trifle.
25 Holy Spirit Homeowners Association, Inc. v. Defensor, 497 SCRA 581 (2006),
at 591.
26 Pimentel v. Office of the Executive Secretary, 462 SCRA 622 (2005), at 630.
27
“*** ‘[T]he presence of one party with standing assures that the controversy before
[a] Court is justiciable,’ so long as the party has the ability to raise all the legal claims
common to the plaintiffs.” (Laurence H. Tribe, American Constitutional Law. Vol. I [3rd ed.
(2000)], at 386)
28 Joya v. Presidential Commission on Good Government, 225 SCRA 568 (1993), at 576.
29 Fariñas v. Executive Secretary, 417 SCRA 503 (2003), at 516.

LOCUS STANDI 11
It is intended ‘to assure a vigorous adversary presentation of the case, and,

perhaps more importantly to warrant the judiciary’s overruling the deter-
mination of a coordinate, democratically elected organ of government.’ It
thus goes to the very essence of representative democracies.”30
Otherwise stated, the question is whether the party appearing
before the court is sufficiently qualified, by means of the injury that he
sustained and the interest that he represents, to invoke the authority of
the courts to look into his constitutional plaint because by then the
questions will be framed with the necessary specificity, the issues will
be contested with the necessary adverseness and the litigation will be
pursued with the necessary vigor to assure that the constitutional
challenge will be made in a form traditionally thought to be capable of
judicial resolution.31 “Standing differs, in theory, from all other elements
of justiciability by focusing primarily ‘on the party seeking to get his
complaint before a federal court’ and only secondarily ‘on the issues he
wishes to have adjudicated.’”32 It is more a matter of looking at the singer
than listening to the song. Accordingly, “[a] citizen acquires standing only
if he can establish that he has suffered some actual or threatened injury
as a result of the allegedly illegal conduct of the government; the injury
is fairly traceable to the challenged action; and the injury is likely to be
redressed by a favorable action.”33
The matter of standing is of particular concern in constitutional law
as it goes to the very authority of the courts to look into the acts of
other departments of the government with regard to matters that might
have been entrusted to them under the doctrine of separation of powers.
30
Justice (now, Chief Justice) Puno, dissenting in Kilosbayan v. Guingona, Jr., at 232
SCRA 110 (1994), at 169.
31 Flast v. Cohen, 392 U.S. 83 (1968), at 106.
32 Tribe, op. cit., at 385-386.
“The fundamental aspect of standing is that it focuses on the party seeking to get
his complaint before a federal court and not on the issues he wishes to have adjudicated.”
(Flast v. Cohen, 392 U.S., at 99; Emphasis supplied.)
33 Gonzales v. Narvasa, 337 SCRA 733 (2000), at 740.
“‘To satisfy the “case” or “controversy” requirement of Article III, which is the “irre-
ducible constitutional minimum” of standing, a plaintiff must, generally speaking, demonstrate
that he has suffered “injury in fact,” that the injury is “fairly traceable” to the actions of the
defendant, and that the injury will likely be redressed by a favorable decision.’” (Tribe, op.
cit., at 386, citing Bennett v. Spear, 520 U.S. 154 [1997], at 162)

12 RENE B. GOROSPE
“Standing doctrine defines the framework for ‘judicial control of public

officers’ and is therefore of special significance in constitutional law.”34
The requirement of locus standi inheres from the definition of judicial
power.35
The rule on locus standi is “a constitutional requirement derived
from section 1, Article VIII of the Constitution which mandates courts
of justice to settle only ‘actual controversies involving rights which are
legally demandable and enforceable.’ The phrase has been construed since
time immemorial to mean that a party in a constitutional litigation must
demonstrate a standing to sue.”36 It has likewise been held that “[s]tanding
is a special concern in constitutional law because in some cases suits are
brought not by parties who have been personally injured by the operation
of a law or by official action taken, but by concerned citizens, taxpayers
or voters who actually sue in the public interest.” 37 In this regard, one
should never overlook the constitutional dimension since “standing restric-
tions require a partial consideration of the merits, as well as broader policy
concerns relating to the proper role of the judiciary in certain areas.”38
In American jurisprudence,39 it has been held that:
The jurisdiction of federal courts is defined and limited by Article
III of the Constitution. In terms relevant to the question for decision
in this case, the judicial power of federal courts is constitutionally
restricted to “cases” and “controversies.” As is so often the situation
in constitutional adjudication, those two words have an iceberg
34 Tribe, American Constitutional Law. Vol. I (3rd ed. [2000]), at 386.

35 Kilusang Mayo Uno Labor Center v. Garcia, Jr., 239 SCRA 386 (1994), at 401.
36Justice (now Chief Justice) Puno, dissenting in Kilosbayan, Incorporated v.
Guingona, Jr., 232 SCRA 110 (1994), at 177.
37Francisco, Jr. v. House of Representatives, 415 SCRA 44 (2003), at 135, citing Kilos-
bayan, Incorporated v. Morato, 246 SCRA 540 (1995), at 562.
39 “As summarized in Valley Forge [Christian College v. Americans United for Sepa-
ration of Church and State, Inc., 454 U. S. 464 (1982)], standing may be denied where a
litigant: (1) presents ‘“abstract questions of wide public significance” which amount to “gene-
ralized grievances,” pervasively shared and most appropriately addressed in the representative
branches’‘ or (2) rests his claim ‘“on the legal rights or interests of third parties”’ rather than
on his own; or (3) does not present a claim arguably falling ‘within “the zone of interests to
be protected or regulated by the statute or constitutional guarantee in question.”’ Additional
doctrinal complexities, of both a constitutional and a prudential nature, are introduced when
a state or organization asserts legal claims, or when the litigant is a legislator suing in
connection with his official duties.” (Tribe, op. cit., at 387)

LOCUS STANDI 13
quality, containing beneath their surface simplicity submerged

complexities which go to the very heart of our constitutional form
of government. Embodied in the words “cases” and “controversies”
are two complementary but somewhat different limitations. In
part those words limit the business of federal courts to questions
presented in an adversary context and in a form historically viewed
as capable of resolution through the judicial process. And in part
those words define the role assigned to the judiciary in a tripartite
allocation of power to assure that the federal courts will not intrude
into areas committed to the other branches of government. Justicia-
bility is the term of art employed to give expression to this dual
limitation placed upon federal courts by the case-and-controversy
doctrine.40
It could accordingly be appreciated that the requirement of locus

standi is also a means by which the courts could check on the exercise of
their own power. “Standing doctrine ‘subsumes a blend of constitutional
requirements and prudential considerations,’”41 and, “[l]ike their consti-
tutional counterparts, these ‘judicially self-imposed limits on the exercise
of federal jurisdiction,’ ... are ‘founded in concern about the proper – and
properly limited – role of the courts in a democratic society.’”42 Then
Justice (now, Chief Justice) Puno observed: “The hindsight of history ought
to tell us that it is not power per se that strengthens. Power unused is
preferable than power misused. We contribute to constitutionalism both
by the use of our power to decide and its non use. As well said, the cases
we decide are as significant as the cases we do not decide. Real power
belongs to him who has the power over power.”43 Hence, it could be seen
that the rule on locus standi is also a sort of self-imposed check on the
courts’ own powers as they try to ensure the proper exercise of power by
other departments within constitutional limits.
40 Flast v. Cohen, 392 U.S. 83 (1968), at 94-95.

41Tribe, op. cit., at 386, citing Valley Forge Christian College v. Americans United for
Separation of Church and State, 435 U.S. 464 (1982), at 471.
“As part of the injury-in-fact test, a court will often pay heed to a prudential policy
against the assertion of generalized grievances more appropriately addressed by the repre-
sentative branches. This is best analyzed as a prudential concern because it acknowledges
that the plaintiff has suffered some type of injury, but one indistinguishably incurred by a
multitude of others as well. The be sure, the Court has sometimes implied that ‘generalize
grievances’ do not confer standing as a matter of Article III.’” (Tribe, op. cit., at 415)
42 Bennett v. Spear, 520 U.S. 154 (1997), at 162.
43
Justice (now, Chief Justice) Puno, dissenting in Kilosbayan v. Guingona, Jr., at 232
SCRA 110 (1994), at 179-180.

14 RENE B. GOROSPE
Where the issue brought before the courts is more about con-
tractual matters than constitutional disputes, the Supreme Court has not
been quite consistent on the issue of locus standi. In Gascon v. Arroyo,44
an action to annul and set aside the “Agreement to Arbitrate” between
the Government and ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation to settle the
claims of the latter for the return of certain radio and television stations,
including Channel 4, which had been taken over by the government
following the declaration of martial law in 1972, the Court said that, as
between the parties, the same was contractual in character and since the
petitioners had not shown any legal interest in the TV Station Channel 4
and that they would be adversely affected in and when said television
station is returned to the private claimant, they had no legal standing to
file the petition.
In Tatad v. Garcia, Jr., 45 it was declared that “[t]he prevailing
doctrines in taxpayer’s suits are to allow taxpayers to question contracts
entered into by the national government or government-owned or con-
trolled corporations allegedly in contravention of law (Kilosbayan, Inc.
v. Guingona, 232 SCRA 110 [1994]) and to disallow the same when only
municipal contracts are involved (Bugnay Construction and Development
Corporation v. Laron, 176 SCRA 240 [1989]).” Then, it added: “For as long
as the ruling in Kilosbayan on locus standi is not reversed, we have no
choice but to follow it and uphold the legal standing of petitioners as tax-
payers to institute the present action.”46 Justice Mendoza disagreed with
the majority on this aspect in words that adumbrated his opinion for the
Court in Kilosbayan, Incorporated v. Morato.47 In his dissent, he stated:
Today’s holding that a citizen, qua citizen, has standing to question
a government contract unduly expands the scope of public actions
and sweeps away the case and controversy requirement so care-
fully embodied in Art. VIII, §5 in defining the jurisdiction of this
Court. The result is to convert the Court into an office of ombudsman
for the ventilation of generalized grievances. Consistent with the
view that this case has no merit I submit with respect that petitioners,
as representatives of the public interest, have no standing.48
44 178 SCRA 582 (1989), at 586.

45 243 SCRA 436 (1995), at 451.
46 Ibid.
47 246 SCRA 540 (1995)
48 243 SCRA, at 476.

LOCUS STANDI 15
Thus, when Justice Mendoza wrote for the Court in Kilosbayan,

Incorporated v. Morato, the aspect about locus standi became irrelevant
with respect to contractual matters. The Court declared that the petitioners’
standing therein was “strictly speaking, not even the issue in this case,
since standing is a concept in constitutional law and here no constitutional
question is actually involved. The issue in this case is whether petitioners
are the ‘real parties in interest’ within the meaning of Rule 3, §2 of the
Rules of Court which requires that ‘Every action must be prosecuted and
defended in the name of the real party in interest.’”49
Further highlighting this aspect, the Court said in David v. Macapagal-
Arroyo:50
Locus standi is defined as “a right of appearance in a court of
justice on a given question.” In private suits, standing is governed
by the “real-parties-in interest” rule as contained in Section 2, Rule
3 of the 1997 Rules of Civil Procedure, as amended. It provides that
“every action must be prosecuted or defended in the name of the
real party in interest.” Accordingly, the “real-party-in interest” is
“the party who stands to be benefited or injured by the judgment
in the suit or the party entitled to the avails of the suit.” Succinctly
put, the plaintiff ’s standing is based on his own right to the relief
sought.
As to the element of injury, such aspect is not something that

just anybody with some grievance or pain may assert. It has to be direct
49 246 SCRA 540 (1995), at 562.

On the need to make a distinction between the issue of locus standi, a constitu-
tional concept, and the question of real party in interest, a remedial law concern, the Court
in Francisco, Jr. v. House of Representatives, 415 SCRA 44 (2003), stated, inter alia:
“The difference between the rule on standing and real party in interest has been
noted by authorities thus: ‘It is important to note ... that standing because of
its constitutional and public policy underpinnings, is very different from questions
relating to whether a particular plaintiff is the real party in interest or has capacity
to sue. Although all three requirements are directed towards ensuring that only
certain parties can maintain an action, standing restrictions require a partial consi-
deration of the merits, as well as broader policy concerns relating to the proper role
of the judiciary in certain areas.
*****
“On the other hand, the question as to ‘real party in interest’ is whether he
is ‘the party who would be benefited or injured by the judgment, or the ‘party
entitled to the avails of the suit.’” (At 135, citing Kilosbayan, Incorporated v. Morato,
246 SCRA 540 [1995], at 562-563)
50 489 SCRA 160 (2006), at 216.

16 RENE B. GOROSPE
and substantial to make it worth the courts’ time as well as the effort
at inquiry into the constitutionality of the acts of another department of
the government. If the asserted injury is more imagined than real, or
is merely superficial and insubstantial, then the courts may end up being
importuned to decide a matter that does not really justify such an
excursion into constitutional adjudication. It represents a weighing and
balancing of the interests and values involved and the corresponding
costs they entail, much like the exercise of certiorari jurisdiction where
even if mistakes were committed by the lower tribunal the same would
still not justify the appellate court nullifying the assailed judgment or
disposition. There must be a showing of grave, not mere, abuse of dis-
cretion.51
With regard to the determination of who can have the necessary
standing to bring suit, or maintain one, the Court came up with a sum-
mation of how that question has been dealt with in cases antedating
the 1987 Constitution – and, in what may appear as a meandering and
ad hoc manner:52
51 See Montecillo v. Civil Service Commission, 360 SCRA 99 (2001), at 104, Tomas
Claudio Memorial College, Inc. v. Court of Appeals, 316 SCRA 502 (1999), at 508, and, Tañada
v. Angara, 272 SCRA 18 (1997), at 79.
52 Tribe has observed with regard to the American experience on the U.S. Supreme
Court’s own treatment of the standing doctrine:
“[T]he law of standing has for some time been one of the most criticized
aspects of constitutional law. Certainly, ‘[s]tanding to litigate often turns on
imprecise distinctions and requires difficult line drawing.’ Critics have charged
the Supreme Court with habitually manipulating settled standing rules to pursue
extraneous, often unacknowledged ends – such as advancing the majority’s view
of the merits, resolving problems associated with broad equitable relief, and serving
federalism values. The inconsistent and often obtuse nature of the Court’s standing
rulings is of special concern because lower courts must apply the doctrine by
assuming the truth of a litigant’s allegations and analogizing the claims made to
those previously accepted or rejected by the Supreme Court.” (Tribe, op. cit., at
390-391)
Along the same line, the present Philippine Chief Justice referred to Prof.
Paul Freund’s description of the concept of locus standi as “among the most amor-
phous in the entire domain of public law” in Kilosbayan, Incorporated v. Guingona,
Jr., 232 SCRA 110 (1994), at 166.
It has also been noted that “[t]he evolution of standing doctrines seems to
point to greater freedom of action for plaintiffs. However, the courts still have
not articulated how the balance is to be struck between the relevant and often
competing interests: the plaintiff ’s right to relief and the legislature’s right to carry
out its policies without judicial interference. Nor has the judiciary’s competence

LOCUS STANDI 17
The difficulty of determining locus standi arises in public suits.

Here, the plaintiff who asserts a “public right” in assailing an allegedly
illegal official action, does so as a representative of the general public.
He may be a person who is affected no differently from any other
person. He could be suing as a “stranger,” or in the category of a
“citizen,” or “taxpayer.”
In either case, he has to adequately show that he is entitled
to seek judicial protection. In other words, he has to make out a
sufficient interest in the vindication of the public order and the
securing of relief as a “citizen” or “taxpayer.”
Case law in most jurisdictions now allows both “citizen” and
“taxpayer” standing in public actions. The distinction was first laid
down in Beauchamp v. Silk, 53 where it was held that the plaintiff
in a taxpayer’s suit is in a different category from the plaintiff in a
citizen’s suit. In the former, the plaintiff is affected by the expen-
diture of public funds, while in the latter, he is but the mere
instrument of the public concern. As held by the New York
Supreme Court in People ex rel Case v. Collins:54 “In matter of mere
public right, however ... the people are the real parties ... It is at
least the right, if not the duty, of every citizen to interfere and
see that a public offence be properly pursued and punished, and
that a public grievance be remedied.” With respect to taxpayer’s
suits, Terr v. Jordan55 held that “the right of a citizen and a tax-
payer to maintain an action in courts to restrain the unlawful
use of public funds to his injury cannot be denied.”
However, to prevent just about any person from seeking judicial
interference in any official policy or act with which he disagreed
with, and thus hinders the activities of governmental agencies
engaged in public service, the United State Supreme Court laid down
the more stringent “direct injury” test in Ex Parte Levitt, 56 later
reaffirmed in Tileston v. Ullman.57 The same Court ruled that for a
private individual to invoke the judicial power to determine the
to rule on these interests [been] analyzed systematically or its limits defined.

Courts essentially continue to be free to reconcile these competing values on an
ad hoc basis.” (Jack H. Friedenthal, Mary Kay Kane, and Arthur R. Miller, Civil
Procedure, 328 [1985], cited by Justice [later, Chief Justice] Davide, Jr., in his dissent
in Kilosbayan, Incorporated v. Morato, 246 SCRA 540 [1995], at 616)
53 275 Ky 91, 120 SW2d 765 (1938).
54 19 Wend. 56 (1837).
55 232 NC 48, 59 SE2d 359 (1950).
56 302 U.S. 633 (1937).
57 318 U.S. 44 (1943).

18 RENE B. GOROSPE
validity of an executive or legislative action, he must show that he

has sustained a direct injury as a result of that action, and it is
not sufficient that he has a general interest common to all
members of the public.
This Court adopted the “direct injury” test in our jurisdiction.
In People v. Vera,58 it held that the person who impugns the validity
of a statute must have “a personal and substantial interest in the
case such that he has sustained, or will sustain direct injury as
a result.” The Vera doctrine was upheld in a litany of cases, such
as, Custodio v. President of the Senate,59 Manila Race Horse Trainers’
Association v. De la Fuente,60 Pascual v. Secretary of Public Works61
and Anti-Chinese League of the Philippines v. Felix.62
However, being a mere procedural technicality, the requirement
of locus standi may be waived by the Court in the exercise of its
discretion. This was done in the 1949 Emergency Powers Cases,
Araneta v. Dinglasan,63 where the “transcendental importance” of
the cases prompted the Court to act liberally. Such liberality was
neither a rarity nor accidental. In Aquino v. Comelec,64 this Court
resolved to pass upon the issues raised due to the “far-reaching
implications” of the petition notwithstanding its categorical state-
ment that petitioner therein had no personality to file the suit.
Indeed, there is a chain of cases where this liberal policy has been
observed, allowing ordinary citizens, members of Congress, and
civic organizations to prosecute actions involving the constitutionality
or validity of laws, regulations and rulings.65
Then, it added: “Significantly, recent decisions show a certain toughening

in the Court’s attitude toward legal standing.”66
From the foregoing, it would be readily seen that the decision
whether to recognize the standing of a party to sue, or to allow his suit,
58 65 Phil. 56 (1937).
59 G.R. No. 117, 7 November 1945 (Unreported).
60 G.R. No. 2947, 11 January 1959 (Unreported).
61 110 Phil. 331 (1960).
62 77 Phil. 1012 (1947).
63 84 Phil. 368 (1949).
64 62 SCRA 275 (1975).
65 David v. Macapagal-Arroyo, 489 SCRA 160 (2006), at 216-218.
66Id., at 221. In David itself, the Court, after analyzing the personalities and interests
represented in petitions before it, declared: “This Court holds that all the petitioners herein
have locus standi.” (At 224)

LOCUS STANDI 19
is determined in relation to his personality, and if not, it is made to depend

on the nature or character of the substantive question raised for judicial
adjudication. In fine, the Court, while it has somehow liberalized the
determination of standing, still abides by the “direct injury” criterion or
by a rule that determines whether the issues are of paramount or trans-
cendental importance in order to bypass or go around the matter of locus
standi. This, therefore, represents a lineage of jurisprudence developed
and reiterated based on the past without regard whatsoever to the new
provisions of the 1987 Constitution which translate into people empower-
ment. Worse, without considering such novel constitutional provisions,
there is the constant possibility that the Court may become more strict
and restrictive or more liberal and accommodating, depending possibly
on its appreciation of the issues and the suitors appearing before it, or
dictated by the values and predispositions of whoever may comprise the
Court, or its majority, at any given moment67 – something analogous to
what the U.S. Supreme Court once said about determining what cons-
titutes obscenity.68 There is always the problem of judges having to use
their own standards to determine which of the competing values of society
would have to prevail at any particular time.69
67 Justice Feliciano, in his concurring opinion in Kilosbayan, Incorporated v. Guingona,

Jr., 232 SCRA 110 (1994), at 154, made reference to the Supreme Court’s lack of sufficient
guidelines in determining standing, based on “paramount considerations of national interest”
as coming “too close to saying that locus standi exists whenever at least a majority of the
Members of this Court participating in a case feel that an appropriate case for judicial inter-
vention has arisen.”
Along the same lines, then Justice (now, Chief Justice) Puno, in urging reexamination
of De Guia v. Commission on Elections, 208 SCRA 420 (1992), said: “De Guia would also
brush aside the rule on locus standi ... whenever at least a majority of the Members of the
Court ... feel that an appropriate case for judicial intervention has arisen.” (Dissenting
opinion, 232 SCRA, at 177)
And if only to highlight the possibility of altered direction of the Court, in Kilos-
bayan, Incorporated v. Morato, 250 SCRA 130 (1995), at 136, we find this line: “Indeed, a change
in the composition of the Court could prove the means of undoing an erroneous decision.”
68 “‘The problem is ... that one cannot say with certainty that material is obscene until
at least five members of this Court, applying inevitably obscure standards, have pronounced
it so.’” (Miller v. California, 413 US 15 (1973), at 29; Emphasis supplied)
69Justice Black, joined by Chief Justice Warren and Justice Douglas, made the
following observation in Konigsberg v. State Bar of California, 366 U.S. 36 (1961):
“[I]n my view, the majority has reached its decision here against the freedoms
of the First Amendment by a fundamental misapplication of its own currently, but
I hope only temporarily, prevailing ‘balancing’ test. The interest of the Committee

20 RENE B. GOROSPE
Locus Standi of Various Suitors
A survey of the cases decided would show that the Supreme Court
has recognized, in varying degrees and other differing circumstances,
the locus standi of the following: (a) citizens; (b) taxpayers; (c) legislators;
(d) voters; (e) political parties; (f )associations and organizations; and,
(g) local government units.
1) Citizens
As the very possessor and source of sovereign power, the citizens
as principals certainly have an inherent right to see to it that their will
and wishes are reflected in what their representative government does. If
their agents go astray, then the citizens should rightfully be entitled to
set the matters right. To that extent then should their standing to sue
be recognized.
In Francisco, Jr. v. House of Representatives, 70 a consolidation of
petitions to enjoin an intended impeachment proceeding against the
Chief Justice, and filed by a motley of parties – except the very person
directly involved, the Chief Justice himself – the Court said of citizens’
suits:
When suing as a citizen, the interest of the petitioner assailing
the constitutionality of a statute must be direct and personal. He
must be able to show, not only that the law or any government act
is invalid, but also that he sustained or is in imminent danger of
in satisfying its curiosity with respect to Konigsberg’s ‘possible’ membership in the

Communist Party two decades ago has been inflated out of all proportion to its real
value – the vast interest of the public in maintaining unabridged the basic freedoms
of speech, press and assembly has been paid little if anything more than lip service
– and important constitutional rights have once again been ‘balanced’ away. This,
of course, is an ever-present danger of the ‘balancing test’ for the application of
such a test is necessarily tied to the emphasis particular judges give to competing
societal values. Judges, like everyone else, vary tremendously in their choice of values.
This is perfectly natural and, indeed, unavoidable. But it is neither natural nor un-
avoidable in this country for the fundamental rights of the people to be dependent
upon the different emphasis different judges put upon different values at different
times. For those rights, particularly the First Amendment rights involved here, were
unequivocally set out by the Founders in our Bill of Rights in the very plainest of
language, and they should not be diluted by ‘tests’ that obliterate them whenever
particular judges think values they most highly cherish outweigh the values most
highly cherished by the Founders.” (At 74-75; Emphasis supplied.)
70 415 SCRA 44 (2003).

LOCUS STANDI 21
sustaining some direct injury as a result of its enforcement, and

not merely that he suffers thereby in some indefinite way. It must
appear that the person complaining has been or is about to be
denied some right or privilege to which he is lawfully entitled or
that he is about to be subjected to some burdens or penalties by
reason of the statute or act complained of. In fine, when the pro-
ceeding involves the assertion of a public right, the mere fact that
he is a citizen satisfies the requirement of personal interest.
Otherwise stated, “a citizen will be allowed to raise a constitutional

question only when he can show that he has personally suffered some
actual or threatened injury as a result of the allegedly illegal conduct of
the government; the injury is fairly traceable to the challenged action; and
the injury is likely to be redressed by a favorable action.”71
In Tañada v. Tuvera, the Court, in recognizing the standing of
the petitioners who brought suit to compel the publication of presidential
decrees and other issuances which were until then kept confidential or
secret, the Court declared:
As early as the 1910 case of Severino v. Governor General, this Court
held that while the general rule is that “a writ of mandamus would
be granted to a private individual only in those cases where he
has some private or particular interest to be subserved, or some
particular right to be protected, independent of that which he holds
with the public at large,” and “it is for the public officers exclusively
to apply for the writ when public rights are to be subserved [Mithchell
vs. Boardmen, 79 M.e., 469],” nevertheless, “when the question is one
of public right and the object of the mandamus is to procure the
enforcement of a public duty, the people are regarded as the real
party in interest and the relator at whose instigation the proceedings
are instituted need not show that he has any legal or special interest
in the result, it being sufficient to show that he is a citizen and as
such interested in the execution of the laws [High, Extraordinary
Legal Remedies, 3rd ed., sec. 431].
* * * * *
The reasons given by the Court in recognizing a private citizen’s
legal personality in the aforementioned case apply squarely to the
present petition. Clearly, the right sought to be enforced by peti-
tioners herein is a public right recognized by no less than the
71 Telecommunications and Broadcast Attorneys of the Philippines, Inc. v. Commission

on Elections, 289 SCRA 337 (1998), at 343. See also Francisco, Jr. v. Bayani, G.R. No. 166501, 16
November 2006, at 3, Advance Sheets.

22 RENE B. GOROSPE
fundamental law of the land. If petitioners were not allowed to

institute this proceeding, it would indeed be difficult to conceive of
any other person to initiate the same, considering that the Solicitor
General, the government officer generally empowered to represent the
people, has entered his appearance for respondents in this case. 72
In Legaspi v. Civil Service Commission,73 the Court adverted to what

it said in Tañada v. Tuvera to uphold the standing of a citizen seeking,
pursuant to the constitutional right to information, certain data regarding
the employment status of some personnel in the government service,
declaring that “when a mandamus proceeding involves the assertion of a
public right, the requirement of personal interest is satisfied by the mere
fact that the petitioner is a citizen, and therefore, part of the general
‘public’ which possesses the right.” Accordingly, “[t]he petitioner, being
a citizen who, as such is clothed with personality to seek redress for the
alleged obstruction of the exercise of the public right.”74
The right to information was also used as a basis for recognizing
the standing of the petitioner in Chavez v. Public Estates Authority,75 a
petition for mandamus to compel PEA to disclose the facts on its renego-
tiations with a private corporation for the reclamation of portions of
Manila Bay. The Court said that the petitioner, as a citizen, has the
requisite standing considering that it involved the enforcement of consti-
tutional rights – to information and to the equitable diffusion of natural
resources – matters of transcendental public importance.
In Gonzales v. Chavez, a case involving the right to compel the
Solicitor General to perform what was considered as his legal duty to
represent the Presidential Commission on Good Government, the
Supreme Court held:
[T]here need be no proof adduced that the petitioner has a
personal interest in the case, as his petition is anchored on the right
of the people, through the PCGG and the Republic, to be represented
72 136 SCRA 27 (1985), at 36-37; Emphasis supplied.

73 150 SCRA 530 (1987), at 536. In Sabio v. Gordon, G.R. No. 174340, 17 October
2006, at 16, Advance Sheets, the Court said that “[t]he cases of Tañada v. Tuvera and Legaspi
v. Civil Service Commission have recognized a citizen’s interest and personality to enforce a
public duty and to bring an action to compel public officials and employees to perform
that duty.”
74 Ibid.
75 384 SCRA 152 (2002), at 182-183.

LOCUS STANDI 23
in court by the public officer duly authorized by law. The requirement

of personal interest is satisfied by the mere fact that the petitioner is
a citizen and hence, part of the public which possesses the right. 76
The foregoing was echoed recently in the case of David v. Macapagal-

Arroyo, where the Court noted the cases which pronounced that “when
the issue concerns a public right, it is sufficient that the petitioner is a
citizen and has an interest in the execution of the laws.”77
Days before David, the Court also sustained the right of citizens
whose freedom to assemble peacefully was allegedly impaired by Batas
Pambansa Blg. 880 (BP 880, otherwise known as the “The Public Assembly
Act of 1985”), and the infamous Calibrated Preemptive Response (CPR)
policy of the government, holding thus:
Petitioners’ standing cannot be seriously challenged. Their right
as citizens to engage in peaceful assembly and exercise the right of
petition, as guaranteed by the Constitution, is directly affected by
B.P. No. 880 which requires a permit for all who would publicly
assemble in the nation’s streets and parks. They have, in fact, pur-
posely engaged in public assemblies without the required permits
to press their claim that no such permit can be validly required
without violating the Constitutional guarantee. Respondents, on the
other hand, have challenged such action as contrary to law and
dispersed the public assemblies held without the permit.78
Related to citizens’ suit would be class suit. In Francisco, Jr. v. House

of Representatives, the Court said:
[W]hen dealing with class suits filed in behalf of all citizens,
persons intervening must be sufficiently numerous to fully protect
the interests of all concerned to enable the court to deal properly
with all interests involved in the suit, for a judgment in a class suit,
whether favorable or unfavorable to the class, is, under the res
judicata principle, binding on all members of the class whether or
not they were before the court.79
76 205 SCRA 816 (1992), at 847; Emphasis supplied.

77 David v. Macapagal-Arroyo, 489 SCRA 160 (2006), at 223, citing Philconsa v.
Enriquez, 235 SCRA 506 (1994), Kapatiran ng mga Naglilingkod sa Pamahalaan ng Pilipinas,
Inc. v. Tan, 163 SCRA 371 (1988), Association of Small Landowners in the Philippines, Inc.
v. Secretary of Agrarian Reform, 175 SCRA 343 (1989), Basco v. Philippine Amusement and
Gaming Corporation, 197 SCRA 52, 60 (1991), and Tañada v. Tuvera, 136 SCRA 27 (1985).
78 Bayan v. Ermita, 488 SCRA 226 (2006), at 248.
79 415 SCRA 44 (2003), at 138.

24 RENE B. GOROSPE
And, talking of class suits, there is the interesting case of Oposa v.

Factoran, 80 where the original petitioners, all minors duly represented
and joined by their respective parents, instituted a taxpayers’ class suit
asserting an “intergenerational responsibility” – “represent[ing] their
generation as well as generations yet unborn” – to preserve and conserve
the natural resources by seeking specifically to cancel all timber license
agreements in the country. The Court noted:
This case, however, has a special and novel element. Petitioners
minors assert that they represent their generation as well as
generations yet unborn. We find no difficulty in ruling that they can,
for themselves, for others of their generation and for the succeeding
generations, file a class suit. Their personality to sue in behalf of
the succeeding generations can only be based on the concept of
intergenerational responsibility insofar as the right to a balanced
and healthful ecology is concerned. Such a right, as hereinafter
expounded, considers the “rhythm and harmony of nature.” Nature
means the created world in its entirety. Such rhythm and harmony
indispensably include, inter alia, the judicious disposition, utili-
zation, management, renewal and conservation of the country’s
forest, mineral, land, waters, fisheries, wildlife, off-shore areas and
other natural resources to the end that their exploration, develop-
ment and utilization be equitably accessible to the present as well
as future generations. Needless to say, every generation has a
responsibility to the next to preserve that rhythm and harmony for
the full enjoyment of a balanced and healthful ecology. Put a little
differently, the minors’ assertion of their right to a sound environ-
ment constitutes, at the same time, the performance of their obligation
to ensure the protection of that right for the generations to come. 81
Of the Court’s action relative to recognizing the locus standi of the

petitioners, Justice Feliciano in his separate opinion noted:
Locus standi is not a function of petitioners’ claim that their suit
is properly regarded as a class suit. I understand locus standi to
refer to the legal interest which a plaintiff must have in the subject
matter of the suit. Because of the very broadness of the concept of
80 224 SCRA 792 (1993). In Pimentel v. Office of the Executive Secretary, 462 SCRA
622 (2005), however, the Court refused to accord standing to two petitioners, aged 2 and 1,
relative to a petition assailing non-transmittal by the President of the signed text of the
Rome Statute to the Senate for the latter’s concurrence.
81 224 SCRA, at 802-803.

LOCUS STANDI 25
“class” here involved – membership in this “class” appears to embrace

everyone living in the country whether now or in the future – it
appears to me that everyone who may be expected to benefit from
the course of action petitioners seek to require public respondents
to take, is vested with the necessary locus standi. The Court may
be seen therefore to be recognizing a beneficiaries’ right of action
in the field of environmental protection, as against both the public
administrative agency directly concerned and the private persons
or entities operating in the field or sector of activity involved. 82
With regard to the issue as to whether the President may refuse

to submit a treaty to the Senate for its concurrence, the Court held in
Pimentel, Jr. v. Office of the Executive Secretary 83 that petitioners who
anchor their standing on the fact that they are advocates and defenders
of human rights, and as citizens of the country, but who have not shown
that they have sustained or will sustain a direct injury from the non-
transmittal of the signed text of the Rome Statute to the Senate, do not
have the requisite standing. “Their contention that they will be deprived
of their remedies for the protection and enforcement of their rights does
not persuade. The Rome Statute is intended to complement national
criminal laws and courts. Sufficient remedies are available under our
national laws to protect our citizens against human rights violations and
petitioners can always seek redress for any abuse in our domestic courts.”84
Finally, of significance to citizens bringing up such issues in vindi-
cation of public interests are the so-called non-Hohfeldian plaintiffs. In
Tolentino v. Secretary of Finance, the Court said: “We accept that this
Court does not only adjudicate private cases; that public actions by
‘non-Hohfeldian’ or ideological plaintiffs are now cognizable provided
they meet the standing requirement of the Constitution; that under Art.
VIII, §1, ¶2 the Court has a ‘special function’ of vindicating constitutional
rights.’”85 The Court explained that “[t]he term is Professor Jaffe’s (JUDICIAL
CONTROL OF ADMINISTRATIVE ACTION (1965)) adopted by Justice
Harlan in his dissent in Flast v. Cohen, 392 U.S. 83, 119-120, 20 L. Ed. 2d
947, 973 (1968) to distinguish between the personal and proprietary
82 Id., at 814-815.
83 462 SCRA 622 (2005).
84 Id., at 631.
85 235 SCRA 630 (1994), at 686.

26 RENE B. GOROSPE
interest of traditional plaintiffs and the public interest of a citizen suing

in a public action.”86 Justice Harlan himself in his dissent in Flast v. Cohen,
enunciated on his use of the term:
Surely it is plain that the rights and interests of taxpayers who
contest the constitutionality of public expenditures are markedly
different from those of “Hohfeldian” plaintiffs, including those
taxpayer-plaintiffs who challenge the validity of their own tax
liabilities. We must recognize that these non-Hohfeldian plaintiffs
complain ... not as taxpayers, but as “private attorneys-general.” The
interests they represent, and the rights they espouse, are bereft of
any personal or proprietary coloration. They are, as litigants, indis-
tinguishable from any group selected at random from among the
general population, taxpayers and nontaxpayers alike. These are
and must be, to adopt Professor Jaffe’s useful phrase, “public actions”
brought to vindicate public rights.
It does not, however, follow that suits brought by non-Hohfeldian
plaintiffs are excluded by the “case or controversy” clause of Article
III of the Constitution from the jurisdiction of the federal courts.
This and other federal courts have repeatedly held that individual
litigants, acting as private attorneys-general, may have standing as
“representatives of the public interest.” ... The various lines of authority
are by no means free of difficulty, and certain of the cases may be
explicable as involving a personal, if remote, economic interest,
but I think that it is, nonetheless, clear that non-Hohfeldian plaintiffs
as such are not constitutionally excluded from the federal courts.
The problem ultimately presented by this case is, in my view, there-
fore to determine in what circumstances, consonant with the
character and proper functioning of the federal courts, such suits
should be permitted.87
Justice Harlan noted that he “employed the phrases ‘Hohfeldian’ and ‘non-
Hohfeldian’ plaintiffs to mark the distinction between the personal and
proprietary interests of the traditional plaintiff, and the representative and
public interests of the plaintiff in a public action. I am aware that we
are confronted here by a spectrum of interests of varying intensities,
but the distinction is sufficiently accurate, and convenient, to warrant its
use at least for purposes of discussion.”88
86 Ibid., n. 48.
87 392 U.S. 83 (1968), at 119-120.
88 n. 5, 392 U.S., at 119.

LOCUS STANDI 27
Related to the foregoing is Guazon v. De Villa,89 where the suit was

brought by forty-one (41) petitioners to question the alleged “saturation
drives” or the police conduct of zonal searches. The petitioners alleged
that they were bonafide residents of Metro Manila and taxpayers and
leaders in their respective communities. They maintained that they have
a common or general interest in the preservation of the rule of law,
protection of their human rights and the reign of peace and order in
their communities. They also claimed to represent the citizens of Metro
Manila who have similar interests and are so numerous that it is imprac-
ticable to bring them all before this Court. The Court held, however, that:
The remedy is not an original action for prohibition brought

through a taxpayers’ suit. Where not one victim complains and not
one violator is properly charged, the problem is not initially for the
Supreme Court. It is basically one for the executive departments
and for trial courts. Well meaning citizens with only second hand
knowledge of the events cannot keep on indiscriminately tossing
problems of the executive, the military, and the police to the
Supreme Court as if we are the repository of all remedies for all
evils. The rules of constitutional litigation have been evolved for
an orderly procedure in the vindication of rights. They should
be followed. If our policy makers sustain the contention of the
military and the police that occasional saturation drives are essential
to maintain the stability of government and to insure peace and
order, clear policy guidelines on the behavior of soldiers and police-
men must not only be evolved, they should also be enforced. A
method of pinpointing human rights abuses and identifying violators
is necessary.90
Justice Cruz, in his dissent, remonstrated, arguing: “The ruling that the
petitioners are not proper parties is a specious pretext for inaction. We
have held that technical objections may be brushed aside where there
are constitutional questions that must be met. There are many decisions
applying this doctrine.”91
89 181 SCRA 623 (1990).

90 Id., at 638; Boldface supplied.
91 181 SCRA 623 (1990), at 640.

28 RENE B. GOROSPE
2) Taxpayers
The citizens, burdened as they are with the obligation to help main-
tain the government through the payment of taxes, have the right to
oversee and determine the legality and regularity of the expenditure of
whatever they may have been compelled to shell out for the government.
Since most of the activities of the government have to be supported by
taxpayer’s money, then that gives them the necessary standing to question
what they may consider or perceive to be illegal, improper or wasteful
expenditure of their money.92 As the Court noted in Pascual v. Secretary
of Public Works and Communications:93
Again, it is well settled that the validity of a statute may be
contested only by one who will sustain a direct injury in consequence
of its enforcement. Yet, there are many decisions nullifying, at the
instance of taxpayers, laws providing for the disbursement of public
funds, upon the theory that “the expenditure of public funds by
an officer of the State for the purpose of administering an unconsti-
tutional act constitutes a misapplication of such funds,” which may
be enjoined at the request of a taxpayer. Although there are some
decisions to the contrary, the prevailing view in the United States is
stated in the American Jurisprudence as follows:
“In the determination of the degree of interest essential
to give the requisite standing to attack the constitutionality
of a statute the general rule is that only persons indivi-
dually affected, but also taxpayers, have sufficient interest
in preventing the illegal expenditure of moneys raised by
taxation and may therefore question the constitutionality
of statutes requiring expenditure of public moneys.” (11 Am.
Jur. 761; italics supplied.)
Pascual then proceeded to refer to early Philippine cases where taxpayers

were involved in actions questioning the expenditure of public funds:
[I]n the Province of Tayabas vs. Perez (56 Phil., 257), involving the
expropriation of a land by the Province of Tayabas, two (2) taxpayers
92 “Taxpayers, ... have the right to restrain officials from wasting public funds through
the enforcement of an unconstitutional statute. The Court has held that they may assail the
validity of a law appropriating public funds because expenditure of public funds by an officer
of the State for the purpose of executing an unconstitutional act constitutes a misapplication
of such funds.” (Macalintal v. Commission on Elections, 405 SCRA 614 [2004], at 625)
93 110 Phil. 331 (1960), at 342-343.

LOCUS STANDI 29
thereof were allowed to intervene for the purpose of contesting the

price being paid to the owner thereof, as unduly exorbitant. It is
true that in Custodio vs. President of the Senate (42 Off. Gaz., 1243),
a taxpayer and employee of the Government was not permitted to
question the constitutionality of an appropriation for backpay of
members of Congress. However, in Rodriguez vs. Treasurer of the
Philippines and Barredo vs. Commission on Election (84 Phil., 368; 45
Off. Gaz., 4411), we entertained the action of taxpayers impugning
the validity of certain appropriations of public funds, and invalidated
the same. Moreover, the reason that impelled this Court to take such
position in said two (2) cases – the importance of the issues therein
raised – is present in the case at bar. Again, like the petitioners in the
Rodriguez and Barredo cases, petitioner herein is not merely a tax-
payer. The province of Rizal, which he represents officially as its
Provincial Governor, is our most populated political subdivision,
and, the taxpayers therein bear a substantial portion of the burden
of taxation, in the Philippines.94
In Sanidad v. Commission on Elections,95 the Court held:

At the instance of taxpayers, laws providing for the disbursement
of public funds may be enjoined, upon the theory that the expen-
diture of public funds by an officer of the State for the purpose of
executing an unconstitutional act constitutes a misapplication of
such funds.... The interest of the aforenamed petitioners as tax-
payers in the lawful expenditure of these amounts of public money
sufficiently clothes them with that personality to litigate the validity
of the Decrees appropriating said funds. Moreover, as regards tax-
payer’s suits, this Court enjoys that open discretion to entertain the
same or not. For the present case, We deem it sound to exercise that
discretion affirmatively so that the authority upon which the disputed
Decrees are predicated may be inquired into.
Francisco, Jr. v. House of Representatives 96 synthesized the rule on

this particular aspect of standing:
In the case of a taxpayer, he is allowed to sue where there is
a claim that public funds are illegally disbursed, or that public money
is being deflected to any improper purpose, or that there is a wastage
of public funds through the enforcement of an invalid or unconsti-
tutional law. Before he can invoke the power of judicial review, how-
94 Id., at 345.
95 73 SCRA 333 (1976), at 358-359.
96 415 SCRA 44 (2003), at 136-137.

30 RENE B. GOROSPE
ever, he must specifically prove that he has sufficient interest in

preventing the illegal expenditure of money raised by taxation and
that he would sustain a direct injury as a result of the enforcement
of the questioned statute or contract. It is not sufficient that he has
merely a general interest common to all members of the public.
It follows, therefore, that when there is no expenditure of public

funds to speak of there could hardly be any justification to clothe a tax-
payer with standing to sue. The Court observed in Lozada v. Commission
on Elections:97
As taxpayers, petitioners may not file the instant petition, for
nowhere therein is it alleged that tax money is being illegally spent.
The act complained of is the inaction of the COMELEC to call a
special election, as is allegedly its ministerial duty under the consti-
tutional provision abovecited, and therefore, involves no expenditure
of public funds. It is only when an act complained of, which may
include a legislative enactment or statute, involves the illegal expen-
diture of public money that the so-called taxpayer suit may be
allowed. What the case at bar seeks is one that entails expenditure of
public funds which may be illegal because it would be spent for a
purpose – that of calling a special election – which, as will be shown,
has no authority either in the Constitution or a statute.
Nevertheless, in Albano v. Reyes, 98 the Court held that while no

expenditure of public funds was involved under an assailed contract for
the development, management and operation of the Manila International
Container Terminal (MICT), considering such facility’s important role
in the economic development of the country and the magnitude of the
financial consideration involved, public interest was definitely involved
and this clothed petitioner with the legal personality under the disclosure
provision of the Constitution to question it.
Then turning around, in what looks like a wayward pronounce-
ment in Gonzales v. Narvasa, the Court held that “a taxpayer’s action is
properly brought only when there is an exercise by Congress of its taxing
or spending power.”99 It went on to elucidate as follows:
97 120 SCRA 337 (1983), at 341.

98 175 SCRA 264 (1989), at 273.
99 337 SCRA 733 (2000), at 741.

LOCUS STANDI 31
[I]t is readily apparent that there is no exercise by Congress of its

taxing or spending power. The PCCR was created by the President
by virtue of E.O. No. 43, as amended by E.O. No. 70. Under section
7 of E.O. No. 43, the amount of 3 million is “appropriated” for its
operational expenses “to be sourced from the funds of the Office of
the President.... The appropriations for the PCCR were authorized
by the President, not by Congress. In fact, there was no appropriation
at all. “In a strict sense, appropriation has been defined ‘as nothing
more than the legislative authorization prescribed by the Constitution
that money may be paid out of the Treasury,’ while appropriation
made by law refers to ‘the act of the legislature setting apart or
assigning to a particular use a certain sum to be used in the payment
of debt or dues from the State to its creditors’.” The funds used for
the PCCR were taken from funds intended for the Office of the
President, in the exercise of the Chief Executive’s power to transfer
funds pursuant to section 25 (5) of article VI of the Constitution.100
One wonders why public money allocated for the President should be
beyond a taxpayer’s inquiry as to its use. “In essence, taxpayers are
allowed to sue where there is a claim of illegal disbursement of public
funds, or that public money is being deflected to any improper purpose,
or where the petitioners seek to restrain the respondent from wasting
public funds through the enforcement of an invalid or unconstitutional
law.”101 If that be so, and further considering that it is a rule that a party
suing as a taxpayer must specifically prove that he has sufficient interest
in preventing the illegal expenditure of money raised by taxation, 102
should not the question be, if ever it is relevant at all, whether the money
was raised by taxation instead of determining who is spending? In any
event, the mere fact that the money is part of the public treasury would
mean that it could only be utilized for admittedly valid and legal or consti-
tutional expenditures, a matter that courts should be obligated to look
into upon demand by a taxpayer or even a mere citizen.
In the U.S., there was a time when it was thought that being a
federal taxpayer did not necessarily clothe a party with sufficient standing
100 Id., at 743-744. One might as well ask: Who’s money is it anyway? Has it become
less the people’s money because it has already been appropriated for the Office of the President?
101 Brillantes v. Commission on Elections, 432 SCRA 269 (2004), at 284.
102Del Mar v. Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation, 346 SCRA 485 (2000),
at 501, and Bayan (Bagong Alyansang Makabayan) v. Zamora, 342 SCRA 449 (2000), at
478-479.

32 RENE B. GOROSPE
to raise a constitutional issue because such party’s “interest in the moneys

of the Treasury ... is comparatively minute and indeterminable” and that
“the effect upon future taxation, of any payment out of the [Treasury’s]
funds, ... [is] remote, fluctuating and uncertain.” Therefore, the U.S.
Supreme Court ruled that the taxpayer had failed to allege the type of
“direct injury” necessary to confer standing.103 In Flast v. Cohen, the Court
held that
a taxpayer will have standing consistent with Article III to invoke
federal judicial power when he alleges that congressional action
under the taxing and spending clause is in derogation of those cons-
titutional provisions which operate to restrict the exercise of the taxing
and spending power. ... Under such circumstances, we feel confident
that the questions will be framed with the necessary specificity,
that the issues will be contested with the necessary adverseness and
that the litigation will be pursued with the necessary vigor to assure
that the constitutional challenge will be made in a form traditionally
thought to be capable of judicial resolution. We lack that confidence
in cases such as Frothingham where a taxpayer seeks to employ a
federal court as a forum in which to air his generalized grievances
about the conduct of government or the allocation of power in the
Federal System.104
Commenting on the U.S. rule on federal taxpayer suits vis-a-vis

the Philippine setting, the Court in Pascual v. Secretary of Public Works
and Communications explained why the liberal view on the standing of
taxpayers was not adopted in Frothingham insofar as federal laws are
concerned. This was based
upon the ground that the relationship of a taxpayer of the U.S. to its
Federal Government is different from that of a taxpayer of a municipal
corporation to its government. Indeed, under the composite system
of government existing in the U.S., states of the Union are integral
part of the Federation from an international viewpoint, but, each
state enjoys internally a substantial measure of sovereignty, subject
103 Flast v. Cohen, 392 U.S. 83 (1968), at 92, making reference to the Court’s earlier
decision in Frothingham v. Mellon, 262 U.S. 447 (1923).
Frothingham, which ruled that a federal taxpayer is without standing to challenge
the constitutionality of a federal statute, stood for 45 years as an impenetrable barrier to
suits against Acts of Congress brought by individuals who can assert only the interest of
federal taxpayers. (392 U.S., at 85)
104 392 U.S., at 105-106.

LOCUS STANDI 33
to the limitations imposed by the Federal Constitution. In fact, the

same was made by representatives of each state of the Union, not
of the people of the U.S., except insofar as the former represented the
people of the respective States, and the people of each State has,
independently of that of the others, ratified said Constitution. In
other words, the Federal Constitution and the Federal statutes have
become binding upon the people of the U.S. in consequence of an
act of, and, in this sense, through the respective states of the Union
of which they are citizens. The peculiar nature of the relation between
said people and the Federal Government of the U.S. is reflected in
the election of its President, who is chosen directly, not by the people
of the U.S., but by electors chosen by each State, in such manner
as the legislature thereof may direct (Article II, section 2, of the
Federal Constitution).
The relation between the people of the Philippines and its tax-
payers, on the one hand, and the Republic of the Philippines, on the
other, is not identical to that obtaining between the people and tax-
payers of the U.S. and its Federal Government. It is closer, from a
domestic viewpoint, to that existing between the people and taxpayers
of each state and the government thereof, except that the authority
of the Republic of the Philippines over the people of the Philippines
is more fully direct than that of the states of the Union, insofar as the
simple and unitary type of our national government is not subject
to limitations analogous to those imposed by the Federal Consti-
tution upon the states of the Union, and those imposed upon the
Federal Government in the interest of the states of the Union. For
this reason, the rule recognizing the right of taxpayers to assail the
constitutionality of a legislation appropriating local or state public
funds – which has been upheld by the Federal Supreme Court
(Crampton v. Zabriskie, 101 U.S. 601) – has greater application in
the Philippines than that adopted with respect to acts of Congress of
the United States appropriating federal funds.105
Thus, it may be said that in the Philippines, the rule on taxpayer’s

suit is more liberal and accommodating compared to what obtains in
the U.S. Nevertheless, sight must not be lost of what the Supreme Court
said in Tan v. Macapagal that “as far as a taxpayer’s suit is concerned,
this Court is not devoid of discretion as to whether or not it should be
entertained.”106
105 110 Phil. 331 (1960), at 344-345.

106 43 SCRA 677 (1972), at 680.

34 RENE B. GOROSPE
3) Legislators
Members of Congress, as government officials particularly tasked
and empowered by the Constitution to be responsible for the enactment
of laws that govern and regulate the affairs of the State and of its citizens
and inhabitants, may sometimes find that there are some incursions into
their turf, or that some other officials – like the President – may be exer-
cising a power or undertaking an act that should properly belong to the
legislative branch. In such a case, there is an encroachment into their
prerogatives for which reason they would have a valid reason to complain
and resist. Hence, their standing to question any impairment of their
powers and prerogatives.
To the extent the powers of Congress are impaired, so is the
power of each member thereof, since his office confers a right to
participate in the exercise of the powers of that institution.
An act of the Executive which injures the institution of Congress
causes a derivative but nonetheless substantial injury, which can
be questioned by a member of Congress. In such a case, any member
of Congress can have a resort to the courts.107
Or, the legislative body itself, may be the proper party.108 In Senate
of the Philippines v. Ermita, the Court declared: “Verily, the Senate,
including its individual members, has a substantial and direct interest
over the outcome of the controversy and is the proper party to assail the
constitutionality of E.O. 464.”109 The heads of the two houses of Congress
– the Senate President and the Speaker of the House – have likewise the
requisite standing to prevent the usurpation of a constitutional prerogative
of Congress, such as the canvassing of the votes for the President and the
Vice President.110
107 Sanlakas v. Executive Secretary, 421 SCRA 656 (2004), at 665, citing Philippine
Constitution Association v. Enriquez, 235 SCRA 506 (1994), at 520. The Court also recog-
nized the standing of legislators in Guingona, Jr. v. Carague, 196 SCRA 221 (1991), Ople v.
Torres, 293 SCRA 141 (1998), Del Mar v. Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation,
346 SCRA 485 (2000), David v. Macapagal-Arroyo, 489 SCRA 160 (2006), Senate of the
Philippines v. Ermita, 488 SCRA 1 (2006).
108 See Gonzales v. Macaraig, Jr., 191 SCRA 452 (1990). Here, the legal standing of
the Senate, as an institution, was recognized.
109 488 SCRA 1 (2006), at 37.
110 Brillantes, Jr. v. Commission on Elections, 432 SCRA 269 (2004), at 284-285.

LOCUS STANDI 35
As a corollary, therefore, the standing of members of Congress

cannot be upheld in the absence of a clear showing of any direct injury to
their person or to the institution to which they belong,111 or in the absence
of a claim that a contract in question violates the rights of legislators
or impermissibly intrudes into the domain of the Legislature. 112 There
is this obiter in Tan v. Macapagal,113 however, stating that “[w]here a consti-
tutional question is raised, a Senator has usually been considered as
possessed of the requisite personality to bring a suit.”
Further, merely being a legislator would not justify any assertion
of standing where the prerogatives allegedly impaired belong not to
Congress itself but to a body which, even if closely intertwined with the
legislative branch, is actually independent of it, such as the Commission
on Appointments 114 and the Electoral Tribunals. 115 In Pimentel, Jr. v.
111 Philippine Constitution Association v. Enriquez, 235 SCRA 506 (1994), at 520, and,
Bayan (Bagong Alyansang Makabayan) v. Zamora, 342 SCRA 449 (2000), at 479-480.
112 Bagatsing v. Committee on Privatization, 246 SCRA 334 (1995), at 346.
113 43 SCRA 677 (1972), at 680. For authority it referred to Mabanag v. Lopez Vito,
78 Phil. 1 (1947).
114 “The Commission on Appointments is a creature of the Constitution. Although
its membership is confined to members of Congress, said Commission is independent of
Congress. The powers of the Commission do not come from Congress, but emanate directly
from the Constitution. Hence, it is not an agent of Congress.” (Cunanan v. Tan, Jr., 5 SCRA
1 [1962], at 3)
“[E]ven if the Commission on Appointments is composed of members of Congress,
the exercise of its powers is executive and not legislative. The Commission on Appoint-
ments does not legislate when it exercises its power to give or withhold consent to presi-
dential appointments.” (Pimentel, Jr. v. Ermita, 472 SCRA 587 [2005], at 594)
115 “The 1935 and 1987 Constitutions, which separate and distinctly apportion the
powers of the three branches of government, lodge the power to judge contests relating to
the election, returns and qualifications of members of the legislature in an independent,
impartial and non-partisan body attached to the legislature and specially created for that
singular purpose (i.e., the Electoral Commission and the Electoral Tribunals).” (Lazatin v.
House Electoral Tribunal, 168 SCRA 391 [1988], at 401)
In Bondoc v. Pineda, 201 SCRA 792 (1991), at 807, the Court said:
*** The tribunal was created to function as a nonpartisan court although
two-thirds of its members are politicians. It is a non-political body in a sea of
politicians. What this Court had earlier said about the Electoral Commission applies
as well to the electoral tribunals of the Senate and House of Representatives:
The purpose of the constitutional convention creating the Electoral
Commission was to provide an independent and impartial tribunal for
the determination of contests to legislative office, devoid of partisan
consideration, and to transfer to that tribunal all the powers previously

36 RENE B. GOROSPE
Ermita, a case questioning the validity of appointment of acting Cabinet

Secretaries even as Congress was in session, the Supreme Court said:
“Considering the independence of the Commission on Appointments
from Congress, it is error for petitioners to claim standing in the present
case as members of Congress. President Arroyo’s issuance of acting
appointments while Congress is in session impairs no power of
Congress.” 116 Accordingly, only those senators-petitioners who were
members of the Commission on Appointments had the requisite locus
standi. Neither would party-list representatives, by their status as alone,
have the standing if they have not alleged that they are entitled to, or
that they have been nominated by the party-list groups but have been
unlawfully deprived of, seats in the House of Representatives Electoral
Tribunal or the Commission on Appointments.117
Related to the foregoing is the standing also of local legislators
who might have opposed the position taken by their colleagues. As was
stated in John Hay Peoples Alternative Coalition v. Lim,118 “[c]ertainly then,
petitioners Claravall and Yaranon,119 as city officials who voted against
the sanggunian Resolution No. 255 (Series of 1994) supporting the issuance
of the now challenged Proclamation No. 420, have legal standing to bring
the present petition.”
4) Voters
Consistent with the idea of republicanism, the voters are an import-
ant element of the State, for an enfranchised citizenry – “as a particle of
exercised by the legislature in matters pertaining to contested elections

of its members.
* * * * *
The Electoral Tribunals of the Senate and the House were created
by the Constitution as special tribunals to be the sole judge of all
contests relating to election returns and qualifications of members of
the legislative houses, and, as such, are independent bodies which must
be permitted to select their own employees, and to supervise and control
them, without any legislative interference. (Suanes vs. Chief Accountant
of the Senate, 81 Phil. 818.)
116 Pimentel, Jr. v. Ermita, 472 SCRA 587 (2005), at 595.
117 Pimentel, Jr. v. House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal, 393 SCRA 227 (2002),
at 239.
118 414 SCRA 356 (2003), at 372.
119 Duly elected councilors at the time.

LOCUS STANDI 37
popular sovereignty and as the ultimate source of the established

authority,”120 must necessarily have the personality to hold those persons
he elected to office accountable for what they do or fail to do. “He has a
voice in his Government and whenever possible it is the solemn duty of
the judiciary, when called upon to act in justifiable cases, to give it efficacy
and not to stifle or frustrate it.”121
Nevertheless, the Court declared in Lozada v. Commission on Elec-
tions122 that voters did not have the requisite interest or personality to
qualif y them to maintain and prosecute a petition to compel the
Commission on Elections to call a special election to fill up a vacancy in
the legislature.
The unchallenged rule is that the person who impugns the validity
of a statute must have a personal and substantial interest in the
case such that he has sustained, or will sustain, direct injury as a
result of its enforcement. In the case before Us, the alleged inaction
of the COMELEC to call a special election to fill-up the existing
vacancies in the Batasan Pambansa, standing alone, would adversely
affect only the generalized interest of all citizens. Petitioners’ standing
to sue may not be predicated upon an interest of the kind alleged
here, which is held in common by all members of the public because
of the necessarily abstract nature of the injury supposedly shared
by all citizens. Concrete injury, whether actual or threatened, is
that indispensable element of a dispute which serves in part to cast
it in a form traditionally capable of judicial resolution. When the
asserted harm is a “generalized grievance” shared in substantially
equal measure by all or a large class of citizens, that harm alone
normally does not warrant exercise of jurisdiction. As adverted to
earlier, petitioners have not demonstrated any permissible personal
stake, for, petitioner Lozada’s interest as an alleged candidate and
as a voter is not sufficient to confer standing. Petitioner Lozada does
not only fail to inform the Court of the region he wants to be a
candidate but makes indiscriminate demand that special election be
called throughout the country. Even his plea as a voter is predicated
on an interest held in common by all members of the public and does
not demonstrate any injury specially directed to him in particular.123
120 Moya v. Del Fierro, 69 Phil. 199 (1939), at 204.

121 Ibid.
122 120 SCRA 337 (1983), at 341-342.
123 Some years later, in another case where the issue of standing of the petitioners
was again in issue, Justice Cruz, dissenting in Guazon v. De Villa, 181 SCRA 623 (1990), at

38 RENE B. GOROSPE
Further, parties representing the National Citizens Movement for

Free Elections (NAMFREL), the citizens’ arm authorized to conduct an
“unofficial” quick count during elections, have also been accorded standing
to question certain acts of the Commission on Elections since such persons
have sufficient, direct and personal interest in the manner by which the
COMELEC would conduct the elections, including the counting and
canvassing of the votes cast therein.124
As a general proposition, therefore, a voter is recognized as possessed
of a standing to sue when it comes to matters that affect him as an enfran-
chised member of society. Otherwise, if the case does not concern his
right of suffrage, then he will not be entitled to any locus standi.125
5) Political Parties
Individuals may be better able to achieve what they want if they
cooperate, collaborate and act in concert with others as similarly minded
and motivated as themselves. This is true whether in their personal lives
or in regard to what they want the government to do, acting either as
direct participants or as powers behind the scenes. Citizens and political
parties, for that matter, have an inherent interest, being part of the body
politic, to oversee the operations of the government and the acts of those
momentarily possessed of governmental power. Moreover, it should not
be lost sight of that political parties precisely exist for the purpose of
enabling the people to have a part in the art and science of popular
governance. Political parties are organized specifically to participate in
governance through principles, philosophies and platforms. As the Supreme
Court said in Peralta v. Commission on Elections:126
[P]olitical parties constitute a basic element of the democratic insti-
tutional apparatus. Government derives its strength from the support,
active or passive, of a coalition of elements of society. In modern
640, called Lozada’s ruling on the standing issue therein as “an aberration.” In Guazon itself,
Justice Cruz wrote that “[t]he ruling that the petitioners are not proper parties is a specious
pretext for inaction.” (Ibid.)
124 Brillantes, Jr. v. Commission on Elections, 432 SCRA 269 (2004), at 284.
125 Telecommunications and Broadcast Attorneys of the Philippines, Inc. v. Commis-
sion on Elections, 289 SCRA 337 (1998), at 343.
126 82 SCRA 30 (1978), at 57. This was reiterated in Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino
v. Commission on Elections, 423 SCRA 665 (2004), at 686.

LOCUS STANDI 39
times the political party has become the instrument for the
organization of societies. This is predicated on the doctrine that
government exists with the consent of the governed. Political parties
perform an “essential function in the management of succession to
power, as well as in the process of obtaining popular consent to
the course of public policy. They amass sufficient support to buttress
the authority of governments; or, on the contrary, they attract or
organize discontent and dissatisfaction sufficient to oust the
government. In either case they perform the function of the articu-
lation of the interests and aspirations of a substantial segment of the
citizenry, usually in ways contended to be promotive of the national
weal.
With regard to standing of political parties, the Court, in Senate

of the Philippines v. Ermita, held that Bayan Muna, a national political
party met the standing requirement since it obtained three seats in the
House of Representatives in the 2004 elections and was, therefore, entitled
to participate in the legislative process consonant with the declared policy
underlying the party list system of affording citizens belonging to margi-
nalized and underrepresented sectors, organizations and parties who lack
well-defined political constituencies to contribute to the formulation and
enactment of legislation that will benefit the nation. 127 However, with
respect to another political party, PDP-Laban, which asseverated that it
was clothed with legal standing in view of the transcendental issues raised
in its petition which the Court needed to resolve in order to avert a consti-
tutional crisis, the Court qualified its right to be accorded standing on
the ground of transcendental importance by requiring that it must first
establish (1) the character of the funds (that it is public) or other assets
involved in the case, (2) the presence of a clear case of disregard of a cons-
127 Section 2 of The Party-List System Act (Republic Act 7941) reads:
“SEC. 2. Declaration of Policy. – The State shall promote proportional represen-
tation in the election of representatives to the House of Representatives through
a party-list system of registered national, regional and sectoral parties or organi-
zations or coalitions thereof, which will enable Filipino citizens belonging to margi-
nalized and underrepresented sectors, organizations and parties, and who lack
well-defined political constituencies but who could contribute to the formulation
and enactment of appropriate legislation that will benefit the nation as a whole, to
become members of the House of Representatives. Towards this end, the State
shall develop and guarantee a full, free and open party system in order to attain
the broadest possible representation of party, sectoral or group interests in the
House of Representatives by enhancing their chances to compete for and win seats
in the legislature, and shall provide the simplest scheme possible.”

40 RENE B. GOROSPE
titutional or statutory prohibition by the public respondent agency or

instrumentality of the government, and (3) the lack of any party with a
more direct and specific interest in raising the questions being raised.
The Court then went on to state that since the first and last determinants
were not present, no public funds or assets were involved and there were
other petitioners who had direct and specific interests in the resolution
of the controversy, PDP-Laban was bereft of standing. “Its allegation that
E.O. 464 hampers its legislative agenda is vague and uncertain, and at best
is only a ‘generalized interest’ which it shares with the rest of the political
parties. Concrete injury, whether actual or threatened, is that indispen-
sable element of a dispute which serves in part to cast it in a form tradi-
tionally capable of judicial resolution. In fine, PDP-Laban’s alleged interest
as a political party does not suffice to clothe it with legal standing.”128
On motion for reconsideration, the Court explicated on the reasons
for the difference in treatment of the two political parties, one of which is
a party-list organization (Bayan Muna) and the other a political party
(PDP Laban). It said that there are fundamental distinctions between the
two which called for the Court’s contrasting rulings:
While both parties have members in Congress, PDP-Laban,
unlike Bayan Muna, is not represented therein as a party-list orga-
nization. The PDP-Laban members in Congress were elected to
represent, not their party, but their constituents, i.e., their legislative
district in the case of representatives, or the nation at large in the
case of senators. The Bayan Muna members in Congress, on the
other hand, were elected precisely to represent their party. In fact,
in light of the party-list system, the representatives from Bayan
Muna may be said to have been elected only indirectly, since it was
Bayan Muna itself, as a party, which was voted for in the last elections
where it received enough votes to entitle it to three seats in the
House of Representatives. This, again, contrasts with the situation
of the PDP-Laban members in Congress who were all elected in
their individual capacities.
Indeed, the rights of the Bayan Muna representatives are so
intertwined with their party’s right to representation in Congress
that, in the event they change their party affiliation during their
term of office, they would have to forfeit their seat – a rule which
clearly does not apply to the PDP-Laban members in Congress.
128488 SCRA 1 (2006), at 39-40. E.O. 464 barred officials in the Executive Branch
from appearing in congressional investigations sans presidential consent.

LOCUS STANDI 41
Bayan Muna is thus entitled to participate in the legislative

process in a way that cannot be said of PDP-Laban.129
In Velarde v. Social Justice Society,130 a case brought by a political

party assailing the purported practice of some religious leaders of
endorsing political candidates, and seeking a declaration by the courts
that such practice is violative of the constitutional injunction mandating
separation of Church and State,131 the Court, after stating that parties
bringing suits challenging the constitutionality of a law, an act or a
statute must show not only that the law or act is invalid, but also that
such parties have sustained or are in immediate or imminent danger
of sustaining some direct injury as a result of its enforcement, and that
they must demonstrate that they have been, or are about to be, denied
some right or privilege to which they are lawfully entitled, or that they
are about to be subjected to some burdens or penalties by reason of the
statute or act complained of, went on to observe that
there was no showing in the Petition for Declaratory Relief that SJS
as a political party or its members as registered voters would be
adversely affected by the alleged acts of the respondents below, if
the question at issue was not resolved. There was no allegation
that SJS had suffered or would be deprived of votes due to the acts
imputed to the said respondents. Neither did it allege that any of
its members would be denied the right of suffrage or the privilege
to be voted for a public office they are seeking.
Finally, the allegedly keen interest of its “thousands of members
who are citizens-taxpayers-registered voters” is too general and beyond
the contemplation of the standards set by our jurisprudence. Not
only is the presumed interest impersonal in character; it is likewise
too vague, highly speculative and uncertain to satisfy the requirement
of standing.132
It could thus be seen that in regard to political parties, their direct

relation to the issue presented before the courts, as well as the availability
of a relief for them have a direct bearing on the question of their standing.
129 Senate of the Philippines v. Ermita, 495 SCRA 170 (2006), at 180-181.
130 428 SCRA 283 (2004).
131 “The separation of Church and State shall be inviolable.” (Const., Art. III, §6)
132 428 SCRA, at 296-297.

42 RENE B. GOROSPE
6) Associations and Organizations

It is part of the rights enshrined in the Constitution for individuals
to form and join associations and organizations of their choice.133 It is
of course familiar learning that people could be much more effective
collectively than individually. As the saying goes, in union there is strength.
Again, organizations and associations need not necessarily be organized
like political parties if their main concern is not participation in the affairs
of the government. They may be more interested in promoting some
other interests. But even in this regard, they or their members may still
be affected by certain actions, policies and programs of the government,
for which they may directly take action to question the same. “The modern
view is that an association has standing to complain of injuries to its
members. This view fuses the legal identity of an association with that of
its members. An association has standing to file suit for its workers
despite its lack of direct interest if its members are affected by the action.
An organization has standing to assert the concerns of its constituents”134
for it “is but the medium through which its individual members seek
to make more effective the expression of their voices and the redress of
their grievances.”135
Similarly, the Court also recognized the standing of an association
of homeowners in a government reservation who were affected by the
government program’s rules and regulations relating to the selection
process of beneficiaries and lot allocations. The Court declared:
Thus, petitioner association may assail those provisions in the IRR
which it believes to be unfavorable to the rights of its members.
Contrary to the OSG’s allegation that the failure of petitioner asso-
ciation and its members to qualify as beneficiaries effectively bars
them from questioning the provisions of the IRR, such circumstance
precisely operates to confer on them the legal personality to assail
the IRR. Certainly, petitioner and its members have sustained direct
133 “The right of the people, including those employed in the public and private
sectors, to form unions, associations, or societies for purposes not contrary to law shall not
be abridged.” (Const., Art. III, §8)
The State shall encourage non-governmental, community-based, or sectoral orga-
nizations that promote the welfare of the nation.” (Const., Art. II, §23)
134 Executive Secretary v. Court of Appeals, 429 SCRA 81 (2004), at 96. See also
Kilusang Mayo Uno Labor Center v. Garcia, Jr., 239 SCRA 386 (1994).
135 Executive Secretary v. Court of Appeals, 429 SCRA 81 (2004), at 97.

LOCUS STANDI 43
injury arising from the enforcement of the IRR in that they have been
disqualified and eliminated from the selection process.136
In Telecommunications and Broadcast Attorneys of the Philippines,

Inc. v. Commission on Elections, however, the Court refused to accord
standing to an organization of lawyers of radio and television broadcasting
companies asserting an interest as such lawyers and as citizens, tax-
payers, and registered voters in assailing the constitutionality of a legal
provision for the taking of air time from radio and television broad-
casting stations without payment of just compensation. The Court
declared, insofar as the petitioner organization’s members were suing on
behalf of others not before the Court:
Nor indeed as a corporate entity does TELEBAP have standing
to assert the rights of radio and television broadcasting companies.
Standing jus tertii will be recognized only if it can be shown that
the party suing has some substantial relation to the third party, or
that the third party cannot assert his constitutional right, or that
the right of the third party will be diluted unless the party in court
is allowed to espouse the third party’s constitutional claim. None
of these circumstances is here present. The mere fact that TELEBAP
is composed of lawyers in the broadcast industry does not entitle
them to bring this suit in their name as representatives of the affected
companies.137
Nevertheless, the Court opted to decide the case on the merits since the
other petitioner, a broadcast company, appeared to have the requisite
standing to bring the constitutional challenge.
Prescinding from the foregoing, it is noteworthy that the U.S.
Supreme Court has also recognized the standing of certain persons to
assail the constitutionality of statutes predicated on their association or
relationship with others. In Griswold v. Connecticut,138 a case involving
prosecution of persons who gave professional advice on birth control,
the U.S. Supreme Court recognized the standing of physicians to raise
the constitutional rights of the married people with whom they had a
professional relationship, holding that “[t]he rights of husband and wife,
136 Holy Spirit Homeowners Association, Inc. v. Defensor, 497 SCRA 581 (2006),
at 592.
137 289 SCRA 337 (1998), at 344.
138 381 U.S. 479 (1965), 481.

44 RENE B. GOROSPE
pressed here, are likely to be diluted or adversely affected unless those

rights are considered in a suit involving those who have this kind of
confidential relation to them.” Likewise, in National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People v. Alabama,139 a case about the right of
an association to resist inquiry into its membership list, the American
Supreme Court rejected the argument that the Association lacked standing
to assert constitutional rights pertaining to its members, who were not
parties to the litigation. It explained:
To limit the breadth of issues which must be dealt with in parti-
cular litigation, this Court has generally insisted that parties rely
only on constitutional rights which are personal to themselves.
Tileston v. Ullman, 318 U.S. 44; Robertson and Kirkham, Jurisdiction
of the Supreme Court (1951 ed.), § 298. This rule is related to the
broader doctrine that constitutional adjudication should where
possible be avoided. See Ashwander v. Tennessee Valley Authority,
297 U.S. 288, 346-348 (concurring opinion). The principle is not dis-
respected where constitutional rights of persons who are not imme-
diately before the Court could not be effectively vindicated except
through an appropriate representative before the Court. See Barrows
v. Jackson, 346 U.S. 249, 255-259; Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee
v. McGrath, 341 U.S. 123, 183-187 (concurring opinion).
In Pierce v. Society of Sisters,140 private schools were permitted to assert

the substantive due process rights of the parents and children as third
parties. “The soundest rationale for Court’s decision is that the third
parties’ enjoyment of their rights in Pierce depended on the litigants’
(the schools’) freedom from derivative injury – the injury of having to shut
down for want of students.”141
While the Philippine Supreme Court may have recognized the
standing of associations and organizations, there were also occasions
where it became more restrictive than latitudinarian. In Integrated Bar of
the Philippines v. Zamora,142 for instance, the Court held that the mere
fact that a national organization of lawyers might be interested in up-
holding the rule of law was not enough reason to vest standing upon such
organization:
139 357 U.S. 449 (1958), at 459.

140 381 U.S. 479 (1965), at 481.
141 Tribe, American Constitutional Law. Vol. I [3rd ed. (2000)], at 439.
142 338 SCRA 81 (2000).

LOCUS STANDI 45
The mere invocation by the IBP of its duty to preserve the rule of
law and nothing more, while undoubtedly true, is not sufficient to
clothe it with standing in this case. This is too general an interest
which is shared by other groups and the whole citizenry. Based on
the standards above-stated, the IBP has failed to present a specific
and substantial interest in the resolution of the case. Its funda-
mental purpose which, under Section 2, Rule 139-A of the Rules of
Court, is to elevate the standards of the law profession and to
improve the administration of justice is alien to, and cannot be
affected by the deployment of the Marines.143
Yet, even as the Court refused to accord standing to the IBP, it went on
to state: “This Court, however, does not categorically rule that the IBP
has absolutely no standing to raise constitutional issues now or in the
future. The IBP must, by way of allegations and proof, satisfy this Court
that it has sufficient stake to obtain judicial resolution of the contro-
versy.”144
Of significance in this regard, too, is the somersault of the Court
in two related cases filed by a civic organization, recognizing initially its
standing then repudiating it in a subsequent case within a period slightly
over a year. In Kilosbayan, Incorporated v. Guingona,145 the Court said of
the standing of the petitioners 146 who questioned a joint venture agree-
ment entered into by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO)
with a private corporation: “The preliminary issue on the locus standi
of the petitioners should, indeed, be resolved in their favor. A party’s
standing before this Court is a procedural technicality which it may, in
the exercise of its discretion, set aside in view of the importance of the
issues raised.”147 The following year, after the PCSO entered into a different
contract – an Equipment Lease Agreement – as a result of the suit earlier
filed, Kilosbayan and its co-petitioners in Guingona again went to Court
143 Id., at 100.

144 Id., at 101.
145 232 SCRA 110 (1994).
146 Kilosbayan is a non-stock domestic corporation composed of civic-spirited
citizens, pastors, priests, nuns, and lay leaders who are committed to the cause of truth,
justice, and national renewal. The other petitioners, except for three members of Congress
who were suing in their capacities as such members and as taxpayers and concerned
citizens, sued in their capacities as members of the Board of Trustees of Kilosbayan and as
taxpayers and concerned citizens.
147 Id., at 134.

46 RENE B. GOROSPE
questioning the new arrangement. This time, however, the Court found
that they had no standing, the earlier case notwithstanding. The Court
rationalized:
Stare decisis is usually the wise policy. But in this case, concern
for stability in decisional law does not call for adherence to what
has recently been laid down as the rule. The previous ruling
sustaining petitioners’ intervention may itself be considered a
departure from settled rulings on “real parties in interest” because
no constitutional issues were actually involved. Just before that
ruling this Court had denied standing to a party who, in questioning
the validity of another form of lottery, claimed the right to sue in
the capacity of taxpayer, citizen and member of the Bar. (Valmonte v.
Philippine Charity Sweepstakes, G.R. No. 78716, Sept. 22, 1987)....148
* * * * *
There is an additional reason for a re-examination of the ruling
on standing. The voting on petitioners’ standing in the previous case
was a narrow one, with seven (7) members sustaining petitioners’
standing and six (6) denying petitioners’ right to bring the suit. The
majority was thus a tenuous one that is not likely to be maintained
in any subsequent litigation. In addition, there have been changes
in the members of the Court, with the retirement of Justices Cruz
and Bidin and the appointment of the writer of this opinion and
Justice Francisco. Given this fact it is hardly tenable to insist on
the maintenance of the ruling as to petitioners’ standing.149
Then it added:
Not only is petitioners’ standing a legal issue that may be deter-
mined again in this case. It is, strictly speaking, not even the issue
in this case, since standing is a concept in constitutional law and
here no constitutional question is actually involved. The issue in
this case is whether petitioners are the “real parties in interest” within
the meaning of Rule 3, §2 of the Rules of Court which requires that
“Every action must be prosecuted and defended in the name of the
real party in interest.”150
In regard to people’s organizations, the Court also made the follow-

ing pronouncement in Sanlakas v. Executive Secretary:151

149 Id., at 558-559.
150 Id., at 562.
151 421 SCRA 656 (2004), at 667.

LOCUS STANDI 47
Even assuming that petitioners are “people’s organizations,” this

status would not vest them with the requisite personality to question
the validity of the presidential issuances, as this Court made clear
in Kilosbayan v. Morato:
The Constitution provides that “the State shall respect
the role of independent people’s organizations to enable
the people to pursue and protect, within the democratic
framework, their legitimate and collective interests and
aspirations through peaceful and lawful means,” that their
right to “effective and reasonable participation at all levels
of social, political, and economic decision-making shall not
be abridged.” (Art. XIII, §§15-16)
These provisions have not changed the traditional rule
that only real parties in interest or those with standing, as
the case may be, may invoke the judicial power. The juris-
diction of this Court, even in cases involving constitutional
questions, is limited by the “case and controversy” require-
ment of Art. VIII, §5. This requirement lies at the very heart
of the judicial function. It is what differentiates decision-
making in the courts from decisionmaking in the political
departments of the government and bars the bringing of
suits by just any party.
To the extent, therefore, that the interests of certain associations and

organizations or those of their members are directly affected by govern-
mental action, the associations may bring up a suit for their or their
members’ benefit. This is recognized as a sufficient link between the
issue presented and the personality of the suitor before the courts.
7) Local Government Units

The Constitution declares as one of its basic policies the guarantee
of local autonomy.152 It is only fitting therefore that they should also have
a personality and standing to question national government acts that
affect their autonomy and well-being.
152 “The State shall ensure the autonomy of local governments.” (Const., Art. II, §25)
“The Congress shall enact a local government code which shall provide for a more
responsive and accountable local government structure instituted through a system of
decentralization with effective mechanisms of recall, initiative, and referendum, allocate
among the different local government units their powers, responsibilities, and resources,
and provide for the qualifications, election, appointment and removal, term, salaries,

48 RENE B. GOROSPE
In John Hay Peoples Alternative Coalition v. Lim, 153 the Court

recognized the personality of a local government unit to question the
legality of a presidential issuance, holding that:
The grant by the law on local government units of the right of concur-
rence on the bases’ conversion is equivalent to vesting a legal standing
on them, for it is in effect a recognition of the real interests that
communities nearby or surrounding a particular base area have in
its utilization. Thus, the interest of petitioners, being inhabitants of
Baguio, in assailing the legality of Proclamation No. 420, is personal
and substantial such that they have sustained or will sustain direct
injury as a result of the government act being challenged. Theirs
is a material interest, an interest in issue affected by the proclamation
and not merely an interest in the question involved or an incidental
interest, for what is at stake in the enforcement of Proclamation No. 420
is the very economic and social existence of the people of Baguio City.
In Province of Batangas v. Romulo,154 the Court held that a local

government unit seeking relief in order to protect or vindicate an interest
of its own, and of the other LGUs, pertaining to their interest in their
share in the national taxes or the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA), has
the requisite standing to bring suit.
When one comes to think of it, local government units have their
own legal personalities and interests which could be affected or prejudiced
as well by the acts, policies and programs of the national government. To
the extent that these interests and concerns may be implicated by such
governmental actions, to that extent may the local government units claim
standing to complain.
The foregoing overview has shown how the Court through the
years has accorded standing, or refused to recognize the same, in regard
to certain persons and other parties appearing before it. There has been
no change in the Court’s disposition in connection with this question
even after the adoption of the 1987 Constitution. And, as to be shown
shortly, the Court’s way out of the corner is to recognize an exception
founded on the importance of the issue presented before it.
powers and functions and duties of local officials, and all other matters relating to the
organization and operation of local units.” (Art. X, §3)
153 414 SCRA 356 (2003), at 371-372.
154 429 SCRA 736 (2004), at 756.

LOCUS STANDI 49
Transcendental or Paramount Importance Cases
While the Court may declare that certain suitors before it do not
have the requisite personality to maintain an action questioning the
constitutionality of a government act, still it has found a way to go around
this by invoking exceptions brought about by the nature of the issue
elevated to it for adjudication and resolution, viz., that it is one of trans-
cendental or paramount importance or other terms of similar import.155
The party’s standing in such a case then is determined by the substantive
merit of his case or a preliminary estimate thereof.156 In Lim v. Executive
Secretary, the Court declared:
Given the primordial importance of the issue involved, it will
suffice to reiterate our view on this point in a related case:
Notwithstanding, in view of the paramount importance and the
constitutional significance of the issues raised in the petitions, this
Court, in the exercise of its sound discretion, brushes aside the proce-
dural barrier and takes cognizance of the petitions, as we have done in
the early Emergency Powers Cases, where we had occasion to rule:
“*** ordinary citizens and taxpayers were allowed to question
the constitutionality of several executive orders issued by
President Quirino although they were involving only an
indirect and general interest shared in common with the
public. The Court dismissed the objection that they were
not proper parties and ruled that ‘transcendental import-
ance to the public of these cases demands that they be
settled promptly and definitely, brushing aside, if we must,
technicalities of procedure.’ We have since then applied
the exception in many other cases.” [citation omitted]
This principle was reiterated in the subsequent cases of Gonzales
vs. COMELEC, Daza vs. Singson, and Basco vs. Phil. Amusement
and Gaming Corporation, where we emphatically held:
Considering however the importance to the public of
the case at bar, and in keeping with the Court’s duty, under
the 1987 Constitution, to determine whether or not the other
155 In Kilusang Mayo Uno v. Director-General, National Economic Development

Authority, 487 SCRA 623 (2006), at 640, the Court used the terms “paramount public concern”
and “transcendental significance.” In Del Mar v. Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corpora-
tion, 346 SCRA 485 (2000), at 502, the term used was “issue of overarching significance.”
156 Telecommunications and Broadcast Attorneys of the Philippines, Inc. v. Commission
on Elections, 289 SCRA 337 (1998), at 343.

50 RENE B. GOROSPE
branches of the government have kept themselves within

the limits of the Constitution and the laws that they have
not abused the discretion given to them, the Court has
brushed aside technicalities of procedure and has taken
cognizance of this petition. * * *
Again, in the more recent case of Kilosbayan vs. Guingona, Jr.,
this Court ruled that in cases of transcendental importance, the
court may relax the standing requirements and allow a suit to
prosper even where there is no direct injury to the party claiming
the right of judicial review.157
Further, the Court, in Kilusang Mayo Uno Labor Center v. Garcia,

Jr.,158 surveyed the cases where it liberalized the rule on standing based
on the issue raised, thus relegating to the background the personality of
the petitioner bringing the suit:
Assuming arguendo that petitioner is not possessed of the standing
to sue, this court is ready to brush aside this barren procedural
infirmity and recognize the legal standing of the petitioner in view of
the transcendental importance of the issues raised. And this act of
liberality is not without judicial precedent. As early as the Emergency
Powers Cases, this Court had exercised its discretion and waived
the requirement of proper party. In the recent case of Kilosbayan,
Inc., et. al. v. Teofisto Guingona, Jr., et. al., we ruled in the same
lines and enumerated some of the cases where the same policy was
adopted, viz:
*** A party’s standing before this Court is a procedural
technicality which it may, in the exercise of its discretion,
set aside in view of the importance of the issues raised. In
the landmark Emergency Powers Cases, [G.R. No. L-2044
(Araneta v. Dinglasan); G.R. No. L-2756 (Araneta v. Angeles);
G.R. No. L-3054 (Rodriguez v. Tesorero de Filipinas); G.R.
No. L-3055 (Guerrero v. Commissioner of Customs); and G.R.
No. L-3056 (Barredo v. Commission on Elections), 84 Phil.
368 (1949)], this Court brushed aside this technicality because
‘the transcendental importance to the public of these cases
demands that they be settled promptly and definitely, brush-
ing aside, if we must, technicalities of procedure. (Avelino
vs. Cuenco, G.R. No. L-2621).’ Insofar as taxpayers’ suits
are concerned, this Court had declared that it ‘is not devoid
157 380 SCRA 739 (2002), at 750-751.

158 239 SCRA 386 (1994).

LOCUS STANDI 51
of discretion as to whether or not it should be entertained,’

(Tan v. Macapagal, 43 SCRA 677, 680 [1972]) or that it ‘enjoys
an open discretion to entertain the same or not.’ [Sanidad
v. COMELEC, 73 SCRA 333 (1976)].
*** *** ***
In line with the liberal policy of this Court on locus standi,
ordinary taxpayers, members of Congress, and even association of
planters, and non-profit civic organizations were allowed to initiate
and prosecute actions before this court to question the constitutio-
nality or validity of laws, acts, decisions, rulings, or orders of various
government agencies or instrumentalities. Among such cases were
those assailing the constitutionality of (a) R.A. No. 3836 insofar as
it allows retirement gratuity and commutation of vacation and sick
leave to Senators and Representatives and to elective officials of
both Houses of Congress (Philippine Constitution Association, Inc.
v. Gimenez, 15 SCRA 479 [1965]); (b) Executive Order No. 284, issued
by President Corazon C. Aquino on 25 July 1987, which allowed
members of the cabinet, their undersecretaries, and assistant secre-
taries to hold other government offices or positions (Civil Liberties
Union v. Executive Secretary, 194 SCRA 317 [1991]); (c) the auto-
matic appropriation for debt service in the General Appropriations
Act (Guingona v. Carague, 196 SCRA 221 [1991]; (d) R.A. No. 7056
on the holding of desynchronized elections (Osmeña v. Commission
on Elections, 199 SCRA 750 [1991]; (e) P.D. No. 1869 (the charter
of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation) on the
ground that it is contrary to morals, public policy, and order (Basco
v. Philippine Gaming and Amusement Corp., 197 SCRA 52 [1991]);
and (f ) R.A. No. 6975, establishing the Philippine National Police.
(Carpio v. Executive Secretary, 206 SCRA 290 [1992]).
Other cases where we have followed a liberal policy regarding
locus standi include those attacking the validity or legality of (a) an
order allowing the importation of rice in the light of the prohibition
imposed by R.A. No. 3452 (Iloilo Palay and Corn Planters Asso-
ciation, Inc. v. Feliciano, 13 SCRA 377 [1965]; (b) P.D. Nos. 991 and
1033 insofar as they proposed amendments to the Constitution and
P.D. No. 1031 insofar as it directed the COMELEC to supervise,
control, hold, and conduct the referendum-plebiscite on 16 October
1976 (Sanidad v. Commission on Elections, supra); (c) the bidding for
the sale of the 3,179 square meters of land at Roppongi, Minato-ku,
Tokyo, Japan (Laurel v. Garcia, 187 SCRA 797 [1990]); (d) the approval
without hearing by the Board of Investments of the amended appli-
cation of the Bataan Petrochemical Corporation to transfer the site
of its plant from Bataan to Batangas and the validity of such transfer
and the shift of feedstock from naphtha only to naphtha and/or

52 RENE B. GOROSPE
liquefied petroleum gas (Garcia v. Board of Investments, 177 SCRA

374 [1989]; Garcia v. Board of Investments, 191 SCRA 288 [1990]);
(e) the decisions, orders, rulings, and resolutions of the Executive
Secretary, Secretary of Finance, Commissioner of Internal Revenue,
Commissioner of Customs, and the Fiscal Incentives Review Board
exempting the National Power Corporation from indirect tax and
duties (Maceda v. Macaraig, 197 SCRA 771 [1991]); (f ) the orders
of the Energy Regulatory Board of 5 and 6 December 1990 on the
ground that the hearings conducted on the second provisional
increase in oil prices did not allow the petitioner substantial cross-
examination; (Maceda v. Energy Regulatory Board, 199 SCRA 454
[1991]); (g) Executive Order No. 478 which levied a special duty of
P0.95 per liter of imported oil products (Garcia v. Executive Secretary,
211 SCRA 219 [1992]); (h) resolutions of the Commission on Elections
concerning the apportionment, by district, of the number of elective
members of Sanggunians (De Guia vs. Commission on Elections,
208 SCRA 420 [1992]); and (i) memorandum orders issued by a
Mayor affecting the Chief of Police of Pasay City (Pasay Law and
Conscience Union, Inc. v. Cuneta, 101 SCRA 662 [1980]).
In the 1975 case of Aquino v. Commission on Elections (62 SCRA
275 [1975]), this Court, despite its unequivocal ruling that the peti-
tioners therein had no personality to file the petition, resolved never-
theless to pass upon the issues raised because of the far-reaching
implications of the petition. We did no less in De Guia v. COMELEC
(Supra) where, although we declared that De Guia “does not appear
to have locus standi, a standing in law, a personal or substantial
interest,” we brushed aside the procedural infirmity “considering
the importance of the issue involved, concerning as it does the
political exercise of qualified voters affected by the apportionment,
and petitioner alleging abuse of discretion and violation of the
Constitution by respondent.”159
In Osmeña v. Comelec,160 the Court held that where serious consti-

tutional questions are involved, the “transcendental importance” to the
public of the cases involved demands that they be settled promptly and
definitely, brushing aside technicalities of procedures. On the other hand,
in Velarde v. Social Justice Society,161 the Court, after noting that in not a
few cases the Court has liberalized the locus standi requirement said:
159 239 SCRA, at 402-404.

160 199 SCRA 750 (1991), at 756.
161 428 SCRA 283 (2004).

LOCUS STANDI 53
Similarly in the instant case, the Court deemed the constitutional

issue raised in the SJS Petition to be of paramount interest to the
Filipino people. The issue did not simply concern a delineation of the
separation between church and state, but ran smack into the gover-
nance of our country. The issue was both transcendental in import-
ance and novel in nature, since it had never been decided before.162
In the end, though, the Court held that even if it could have exempted
the case from “the stringent locus standi requirement, such heroic effort
would be futile because the transcendental issue cannot be resolved any-
way” due to procedural infirmities and shortcomings.163
In fine, “in cases of paramount importance where serious consti-
tutional questions are involved, the standing requirements may be relaxed
and a suit may be allowed to prosper even where there is no direct injury
to the party claiming the right of judicial review.”164 Thus, in contrast to
the basic rule on locus standi that it is the personality of the one bringing
suit which is examined, what is rather focused on is the degree of import-
ance of the issue presented, pushing to the background the matter about
appropriateness of the party before the court. The party takes a backseat
or secondary importance – the person is subordinated to, or subsumed
by, the issue he presents.
But what constitutes issues of transcendental importance? The
Court provided guidelines in Francisco, Jr. v. House of Representatives in
this wise:
There being no doctrinal definition of transcendental import-
ance, the following instructive determinants formulated by former
Supreme Court Justice Florentino P. Feliciano are instructive:
(1) the character of the funds or other assets involved in the case;
(2) the presence of a clear case of disregard of a constitutional or
statutory prohibition by the public respondent agency or instru-
mentality of the government; and (3) the lack of any other party with
a more direct and specific interest in raising the questions being
raised. Applying these determinants, this Court is satisfied that the
issues raised herein are indeed of transcendental importance.165
162 Id., at 297.

163 Id., at 298.
164Coconut Oil Refiners Association, Inc. v. Torres, 465 SCRA 47 (2005), at 62;
Emphasis supplied.
165
415 SCRA 44 (2003), at 139; Reiterated in Senate of the Philippines v. Ermita,
488 SCRA 1 (2006), at 35.

54 RENE B. GOROSPE
Just as soon as it had set the guidelines, the Court then proceeded to
provide a caveat:
In not a few cases, this Court has in fact adopted a liberal
attitude on the locus standi of a petitioner where the petitioner is
able to craft an issue of transcendental significance to the people,
as when the issues raised are of paramount importance to the public.
Such liberality does not, however, mean that the requirement that
a party should have an interest in the matter is totally eliminated.
A party must, at the very least, still plead the existence of such
interest, it not being one of which courts can take judicial notice. 166
It is to be noted likewise that the Court, in brushing aside the

question of standing, has invariably characterized the issue as a proce-
dural technicality or matter which could thus explain the facility with
which it may be pushed to the sidelines. But this manner of treating the
rule on locus standi has brought about a remonstrance from Justice (now,
Chief Justice) Puno who observed:
It is my respectful submission, however, that we should re-
examine de Guia.167 It treated the rule on locus standi as a mere
procedural rule. It is not a plain procedural rule but a constitutional
requirement derived from section 1, Article VIII of the Constitution
which mandates courts of justice to settle only “actual controversies
involving rights which are legally demandable and enforceable.”
The phrase has been construed since time immemorial to mean that
a party in a constitutional litigation must demonstrate a standing to
sue. By downgrading the requirement on locus standi as a procedural
rule which can be discarded in the name of public interest, we are
in effect amending the Constitution by judicial fiat.168
It would thus be seen that treating locus standi in a way by which

exceptions could be carved out in order to allow certain parties to gain a
footing to question certain governmental actions is not as reassuring a
rule as one that depends on solid ground upon which to stand. In this
166 Id., at 139; Emphasis supplied.

167 De Guia v. Commission on Elections, 208 SCRA 420 (1992).
168 Dissenting opinion in Kilosbayan, Incorporated v. Guingona, Jr., 232 SCRA 110
(1994), at 177. Earlier in his opinion, he also wrote: “With due respect to the majority
opinion, I wish to focus on the interstices of locus standi, a concept described by Prof. Paul
Freund as ‘among the most amorphous in the entire domain of public law.’ The requirement
of standing to sue inheres from the definition of judicial power. It is not merely a technical
rule of procedure which we are at liberty to disregard.” (Emphasis supplied)

LOCUS STANDI 55
regard, this is provided for by the novel provisions of the Constitution

adopted after the so-called “People Power” Revolution of 1986. That
Charter contains enough new provisions that empower the people to
have a greater say or oversight on the affairs of their government through
legislation, execution, and, adjudication.
The People Power Revolution of 1986

In February 1986, the Filipino people staged the so-called EDSA
People Power Revolution whereby they succeeded in overthrowing the
existing political order in a relatively peaceful manner – they did not
have to resort to the usual violence nor the use of arms that normally is
associated with revolutions.169 “The EDSA revolution of 1986 restored
the reality that the people’s might is not a myth.”170
Following this momentous event in the nation’s history was the
subsequent adoption of a “People Power Constitution,”171 a new covenant
and charter infused with provisions designed to engender greater people
empowerment vis-à-vis their government. 172 The 1987 Constitution
includes people power as an article of faith and Congress was mandated
to pass laws for its effective exercise.173
Nevertheless, along with the exultation that came with new-found
freedom and liberation, however, appears to be the tendency to take
things for granted. As the Court observed in Bayan v. Ermita, relative to
the need for local governments to set up freedom parks in their respective
localities pursuant to a law enacted shortly before that momentous event
in Philippine history:
169 “It was through the February 1986 revolution, a relatively peaceful one, and
more popularly known as the ‘people power revolution’ that the Filipino people tore them-
selves away from an existing regime.” (Letter of Associate Justice Reynato S. Puno, 210 SCRA
589 [1992], at 597)
170 Garcia v. Commission on Elections, 227 SCRA 100 (1993), at 103.
171Justice Azcuna, separate opinion in Lambino v. Commission on Elections, G.R. Nos.
174153 and 174299, 25 October 2006, at 4, Advance Sheets.
172 “In February 1986, however, our people more than exercised their right of recall
for they resorted to revolution and they booted out of office the highest elective officials
of the land. The successful use of people power to remove public officials who have forfeited
the trust of the electorate led to its firm institutionalization of the 1987 Constitution. Its
Article XIII expressly recognized the Role and Rights of People’s Organizations ....” (Garcia
v. Commission on Elections, 227 SCRA 100 [1993], at 109)

56 RENE B. GOROSPE
The Solicitor General stated during the oral arguments that,

to his knowledge, only Cebu City has declared a freedom park –
Fuente Osmeña. That of Manila, the Sunken Gardens, has since
been converted into a golf course, he added.
If this is so, the degree of observance of B.P. No. 880’s mandate
that every city and municipality set aside a freedom park within
six months from its effectivity in 1985, or 20 years ago, would be
pathetic and regrettable. The matter appears to have been taken for
granted amidst the swell of freedom that rose from the peaceful
revolution of 1986.174
To the same extent, the effects and ramifications on locus standi

of the people power provisions of the Charter that was adopted by the
nation following the 1986 “People Power Revolution” seem to have been
ignored or overlooked altogether.
People Empowerment Provisions

of the 1987 Constitution
“The intent of the [1987] Constitution is clear: to give genuine power

to the people, not only by giving more law to those who have less in life,
but more so by enabling them to become veritable lawmakers them-
selves.”175 And, as then Justice (now, Chief Justice) Puno wrote in regard
to people power and the 1987 Constitution: “In a stream of cases, this
Court has rhapsodized people power as expanded in the 1987 Constitution.
On October 5, 1993, we observed that people’s might is no longer a myth
but an article of faith in our Constitution. On September 30, 1994, we
postulated that people power can be trusted to check excesses of govern-
ment and that any effort to trivialize the effectiveness of people’s initiatives
ought to be rejected.... The Constitution calls us to encourage people
empowerment to blossom in full.”176
174 488 SCRA 226 (2006), at 263.

175 Ang Bagong Bayani-OFW Labor Party v. Commission on Elections, 359 SCRA
698 (2001), at 719.
176 Dissenting opinion in Santiago v. Commission on Elections, 270 SCRA 106 (1997),
at 176-177.
“The 1987 Constitution is borne of the conviction that people power can be trusted
to check the excesses of government.” (Garcia v. Commission on Elections, 237 SCRA 279
[1995], at 282)

LOCUS STANDI 57
A glance at the 1987 Constitution, considered in light of the

previous constitutions, would show the inclusion of several new provi-
sions which, on closer analysis and study, could and would support
the proposition that they should mandate a liberalized approached to,
if not an overhaul of, the traditional manner by which the Court has
been dealing with the issue of locus standi. Significantly, it has been
observed that the present Charter is less trusting of officialdom.
“In February 1986, the people took a direct hand in the determination
of their destiny. They toppled down the government of former
President Marcos in a historic bloodless revolution. The Constitu-
tion was rewritten to embody the lessons of their sad experience.
One of the lessons is the folly of completely surrendering the power
to make laws to the legislature. The result, in the perceptive words
of Father Bernas, is that the new Constitution became “less trusting
of public officials than the American Constitution.”177
Otherwise stated, the people have chosen to retain more power in them-
selves – that they may have a greater control over their government and
its officials.
These significant novel and people empowering provisions of the
1987 Constitution include those relating to:
1. Initiative and referendum
2. Outlawing of political dynasties
3. Institution of term limits
4. Recognition of the standing of citizens to question the factual
bases for the suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas
corpus or the declaration of martial law, coupled with the
power of the Supreme Court to undertake such review
5. People’s entitlement to information on health of the President
6. Empowerment of individuals to file impeachment complaints
7. Recognition and empowerment of non-governmental organi-
zations
8. Party-list system
9. Policy of transparency, and,
10. Expanded judicial power
177 Garcia v. Commission on Elections, 237 SCRA 279 (1994), at 288, citing Fr.
Bernas’ “Sounding Board,” Today’s issue of 6 September 1994; Emphasis supplied.

58 RENE B. GOROSPE
Individually, these separate and disparate provisions may not mean

much but when seen together, specially in relation to the spirit of
people empowerment that animated their inclusion in the fundamental
law, then they would be felt as mandating a liberalized approach to the
matter of allowing the people to have a greater say in the affairs of their
government, namely, a recognition that they are more active participants
and not just passive spectators. It is their government and they therefore
have a perfect right to check it and redirect its course if they find it to
have gone astray, and this they may do through whatever means within
their reach – through the legislature, the presidency, or the courts.
1) Initiative and Referendum

On the exercise of legislative powers, the Constitution provides:
The legislative power shall be vested in the Congress of the
Philippines which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Repre-
sentatives, except to the extent reserved to the people by the provision
on initiative and referendum.178
*****
The Congress shall, as early as possible, provide for a system of
initiative and referendum, and the exceptions therefrom, whereby
the people can directly propose and enact laws or approve or reject
any act or law or part thereof passed by the Congress or local legis-
lative body after the registration of a petition therefor signed by at
least ten per centum of the total number of registered voters, of
which every legislative district must be represented by at least three
per centum of the registered voters thereof.179
More importantly, the fundamental law provides for a people’s

initiative in regard to the supreme act of law-making proposing amend-
ments to the Constitution.
Amendments to this Constitution may likewise be directly pro-
posed by the people through initiative upon a petition of at least
twelve per centum of the total number of registered voters, of which
every legislative district must be represented by at least three per
centum of the registered voters therein. No amendment under this
section shall be authorized within five years following the ratification
of this Constitution nor oftener than once every five years thereafter.
178 Art. VI, §1.

179Art. VI, § 32. To implement this provision, Congress enacted in 1989 Republic Act
No. 6735, otherwise known as “The Initiative and Referendum Act”.

LOCUS STANDI 59
The Congress shall provide for the implementation of the exer-

cise of this right.180
In addition, with regard to local legislation, the power of initiative

has also been added to the powers of the citizens:
The Congress shall enact a local government code which shall
provide for a more responsive and accountable local government
structure instituted through a system of decentralization with
effective mechanisms of recall, initiative, and referendum, allocate
among the different local government units their powers, responsi-
bilities, and resources, and provide for the qualifications, election,
appointment and removal, term, salaries, powers and functions and
duties of local officials, and all other matters relating to the organi-
zation and operation of local units.181
Consistent with the idea of republicanism, the people in their

previous constitutions vested the entirety of lawmaking powers in the
Legislature. Thus, the 1935 Constitution simply stated: “The Legislative
power shall be vested in a Congress of the Philippines, which shall consist
of a Senate and a House of Representatives.”182 The 1973 Constitution
vested it in the Batasang Pambansa,183 in addition to allowing the President
180 Art. XVII, §2. In Santiago v. Commission on Elections, 270 SCRA 106 (1997), as
well as in People’s Initiative for Reform, Modernization and Action (PIRMA) v. Commission
on Elections, G.R. No. 129754, 23 September 1997, the Supreme Court held that R.A. No.
6735 was “incomplete, inadequate or wanting in essential terms and conditions” to implement
the initiative clause on proposals to amend the Constitution. In Lambino v. Commission on
Elections, G.R. Nos. 174153 and G.R. No. 174299, 25 October 2006, where the Court was
presented with the opportunity to reexamine Santiago, the main opinion held that there
was no need to revisit Santiago since the petition for people’s initiative itself in Lambino
did not comply with the constitutional requirements. On motion for reconsideration,
however, the Court, without expressly and explicitly abandoning Santiago, came up with this
cryptic pronouncement: “Ten (10) Members of the Court reiterate their position, as shown
by the various opinions already given when the Decision herein was promulgated, that
Republic Act No. 6735 is sufficient and adequate to amend the Constitution thru a people’s
initiative.” (Resolution dated 21 November 2006, http://www.supremecourt.gov.ph/lambino.
pdf, last visited on 24 January 2007)
181 Art. X, §3. This is carried out by the Local Government Code of 1991 (R.A. No.
7160), specifically through §§120-127.
182 1935 Const., Art. VI, §1.
183 “The Legislative power shall be vested in a Batasang Pambansa.” (1973 Const.,
Art. VIII, §1)

60 RENE B. GOROSPE
to exercise it likewise, pursuant to that infamous Amendment 6 introduced

in 1976.184
With the 1987 Constitution, Congress is made to share its legislative
power with the people themselves, a form of people empowerment which
would otherwise be denied them were such provision not incorporated.
The power to legislate is one way by which the people themselves could
literally take and make the law in their own hands. Thus, they need not
always wait for Congress to enact a law that they want. They could do it
themselves if so minded. And for such purpose, initiative185 is entirely the
work of the electorate, a process of lawmaking by the people themselves
without the participation or even against the wishes of their elected
representatives.186
It may be said, though, that through initiative, the people are
actually retaining or regaining in a sense a power that really belongs to
them in the first place. Since they are the sovereign, initiative recognizes
in the people their original power to legislate.187
Through the power of referendum, 188 the people are also given
another legislative power – the prerogative to approve or reject a law
passed by Congress. It consists merely of the electorate approving or
184 “Whenever in the judgment of the President (Prime Minister), there exists a
grave emergency or a threat or imminence thereof, or whenever the interim Batasang
Pambansa or the regular National Assembly fails or is unable to act adequately on any matter
for any reason that in his judgment requires immediate action, he may, in order to meet
the exigency, issue the necessary decrees, orders, or letters of instructions, which shall form
part of the law of the land.”
185 “‘Initiative’ is the power of the people to propose amendments to the Constitution
or to propose and enact legislations through an election called for the purpose.” (§3(a), R.A.
No. 6735)
186 Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority v. Commission on Elections, 262 SCRA 492
(1996), at 511.
187The Court, speaking of local initiative in Garcia v. Commission on Elections, 237
SCRA 279 (1994), at 298, said:
“ *** This procedural lapse [of lack of due process] is fatal for at stake is not
an ordinary right but the sanctity of the sovereignty of the people, their original
power to legislate through the process of initiative. Ours is the duty to listen and
the obligation to obey the voice of the people. It could well be the only force that
could foil the mushrooming abuses in government.”
188“‘Referendum’ is the power of the electorate to approve or reject a legislation
through an election called for the purpose.” (§3(c), R.A. No. 6735)

LOCUS STANDI 61
rejecting what has been drawn up or enacted by a legislative body and

because of this character the process and the voting in a referendum are
understandably less complex than in an initiative.189
On the local level, the provision for initiative and referendum is
in addition to what was already provided for in the 1973 Constitution,190
namely, recall. 191 These three measures operate as means of ensuring
responsibility and accountability. If anything, therefore, the inclusion of
initiative and referendum could only be seen as a further strengthening
of the right of the people to have a better and firmer grasp of the affairs
of, and a more secure grip on, their government, specially in light of the
avowed policy of ensuring local autonomy.192 Hence, as the local govern-
ments become more independent of the national government they become
more accountable and directly responsible to the local residents or their
grassroots constituents.
By giving to the people the power of initiative, it could also be seen
that this is again another manner of empowering them by handing to them
a more direct handle on the affairs of their government.193 Of initiative
itself, much has been said about its people-empowerment qualities.
189 Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, 262 SCRA, at 511.

190 “The Batasang Pambansa shall enact a local government code which may not
be thereafter amended except by a majority vote of all its Members, defining a more
responsive and accountable local government structure with an effective system of recall,
allocating among the different local government units their powers, responsibilities, and
resources, and providing for the qualifications, election and removal, term, salaries,
powers, functions, and duties of local officials, and all other matters relating to the
organization and operation of the local units. However, any change in the existing form
of local government shall not take effect until ratified by a majority of the votes cast in a
plebiscite called for the purpose.” (1973 Const., Art. XI, §2)
191 “Recall is a mode of removal of a public officer by the people before the end of
his term of office. The people’s prerogative to remove a public officer is an incident of their
sovereign power and in the absence of constitutional restraint, the power is implied in
all governmental operations. Such power has been held to be indispensable for the
proper administration of public affairs. Not undeservedly, it is frequently described as a
fundamental right of the people in a representative democracy.” (Garcia v. Commission on
Elections, 227 SCRA 100 [1993], at 108)
192 “The State shall ensure the autonomy of local governments.” (Const., Art. II, §25)
193 “Initiatives promote ‘direct democracy’ by allowing the people to directly
propose amendments to the constitution. In contrast, the traditional mode of changing
the constitution is known as ‘indirect democracy’ because the amendments are referred to the
voters by the legislature or the constitutional convention.” (n. 14, Lambino v. Commission
on Elections, G.R. Nos. 174153 and 174299, 25 October 2006, at 13, Advance Sheets)

62 RENE B. GOROSPE
Initiative, like referendum and recall, is a new and treasured feature

of the Filipino constitutional system. All three are institutionalized
legacies of the world-admired EDSA people power. Like elections
and plebiscites, they are hallowed expressions of popular sovereignty.
They are sacred democratic rights of our people to be used as their
final weapons against political excesses, opportunism, inaction,
oppression and misgovernance; as well as their reserved instruments
to exact transparency, accountability and faithfulness from their
chosen leaders. While on the one hand, their misuse and abuse
must be resolutely struck down, on the other, their legitimate exercise
should be carefully nurtured and zealously protected.194
The Court also had occasion to intone that “[l]ike elections, initiative
and referendum are powerful and valuable modes of expressing popular
sovereignty. And this Court as a matter of policy and doctrine will exert
every effort to nurture, protect and promote their legitimate exercise.”195
Initiative has likewise been valued, along with referendum, as an “ulti-
mate weapon of the people to negate government malfeasance and
misfeasance.”196
2) Political Dynasties Undesirable

Consistent with the philosophy that the Philippines is a democratic
and republican state, with access to public office open to the people, the
1987 Constitution has declared as one of its policies the outlawing of
political dynasties. Thus, it pronounces: “The State shall guarantee equal
access to opportunities for public service, and prohibit political dynasties
as may be defined by law.”197
An eminent constitutionalist and member of the Constitutional
Commission that drafted the 1987 Constitution elucidated on this
provision:
The thrust of this provision is to impose on the state the obli-
gation of guaranteeing equal access to public office. Although the
provision speaks in terms of service, it is meant to be a blow in the
194 Justice (later, Chief Justice) Panganiban, concurring and dissenting opinion in
Santiago v. Commission on Elections, 270 SCRA 106 (1997), at 189.
195 Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority v. Commission on Elections, 262 SCRA 492
(1996), at 517.
197 Art. II, §26.

LOCUS STANDI 63
direction of democratizing political power. And since power was

the subject, it occasioned intense debate. Commissioner Sarmiento
explained the rationale of the provision thus:
By including this provision, we widen the opportunities of
competent, young and promising poor candidates to occupy
important positions in the government. While it is true we
have government officials who have ascended to power
despite accident of birth, they are exceptions to the general
rule. The economic standing of these officials would show
that they come from powerful clans with vast economic
fortunes.
The establishment of political dynasties is an effective way of
monopolizing and perpetuating power. Hence, the state is com-
manded to prohibit political dynasties.198
A republic is a representative government where public office is

supposed to be within the reach of the sovereign people no matter his or
her status in life. 199 Accordingly, it would be an aberration to have a
government run by a few men and women belonging to families and
clans who might have passed on the reigns of power and public perks
from generation to generation like some form of inheritance or family
heirloom. If power is hereditary, then one might as well have a govern-
ment based on an aristocracy of genes. The lesser the pool of leaders, the
more that the greater bulk of the populace is excluded from participation
in the affairs of their government.
Finally, while this constitutional command has practically become
a dead letter since Congress, composed of the very people who may
have established their own political dynasties, has not done anything
198 Joaquin G. Bernas, S.J., The 1987 Constitution of the Philippines: A Commentary
(1996 ed.), at 92.
199 In Maquera v. Borra, 15 SCRA 7 (1965), at 9, the Court said that a requirement
pursuant to R.A. No. 4421 that candidates for public office should post a surety bond
equivalent to the annual salary for the position one seeks to be elected to was imper-
missible in a republican State. “[P]roperty qualifications are inconsistent with the nature
and essence of the Republican system ordained in our Constitution and the principle
of social justice underlying the same, for said political system is premised upon the tenet
that sovereignty resides in the people and all government authority emanates from them,
and this, in turn, implies necessarily that the right to vote and to be voted for shall not be
dependent upon the wealth of the individual concerned, whereas social justice pre-
supposes equal opportunity for all, rich and poor alike, and that, accordingly, no person
shall, by reason of poverty, be denied the chance to be elected to public office.”

64 RENE B. GOROSPE
about it in spite of the lapse of almost 20 years,200 the same should never
be ignored for its vivifying democratic spirit, specially in relation to
people empowerment.
3) Term Limits
Another novel provision in the 1987 Constitution that could be seen
as further enhancement of its people-power character is the provision on
term limits, though under the 1935 Constitution there was already a term
limit, but only for the President – he was not allowed to serve for more
than eight consecutive years.201 The 1987 Charter limits the President’s
term of office to a single term only,202 while the Vice President may have
two consecutive terms.203 With regard to Senators, they have also been
limited to two consecutive terms204 while their colleagues in the House
of Representatives have been given a limit of three consecutive terms.205
This policy applies likewise to local elective officials.206
200 “But since Congress is the principal playground of political dynasties, the
realization of the dream of Commissioner Sarmiento, that the provision on political
dynasties would widen access to political opportunities, will very probably be exhaustingly
long in coming.” (Bernas, op. cit., at 92-93)
201 “No person shall serve as President for more than eight consecutive years. The
period of such service shall be counted from the date he shall have commenced to act
as President. Voluntary renunciation of the office for any length of time shall not be
considered as an interruption in the continuity of the service of the incumbent for the
full term for which he was elected.” (1935 Const., Art. VII, §5)
202 “The President shall not be eligible for any reelection. No person who has
succeeded as President and has served as such for more than four years shall be qualified
for election to the same office at any time.” (Art. VII, §4, ¶1)
203 “No Vice-President shall serve for more than two consecutive terms. Voluntary
renunciation of the office for any length of time shall not be considered as an interruption in
the continuity of the service for the full term for which he was elected.” (Art. VII, §4, ¶1)
204 “No Senator shall serve for more than two consecutive terms. Voluntary renun-
ciation of the office for any length of time shall not be considered as an interruption in the
continuity of his service for the full term for which he was elected.” (Art. VI, §4, ¶2)
205 “No member of the House of Representatives shall serve for more than three
consecutive terms. Voluntary renunciation of the office for any length of time shall not be
considered as an interruption in the continuity of his service for the full term for which
he was elected.” (Art. VI, §4, ¶2)
206 “The term of office of elective local officials, except barangay officials, which
shall be determined by law, shall be three years and no such official shall serve for more
than three consecutive terms. Voluntary renunciation of the office for any length of time
shall not be considered as an interruption in the continuity of his service for the full term
for which he was elected.” (Art. X, §8)

LOCUS STANDI 65
Limiting the terms that elective officials may hold on to office is

another manner of empowering the people to have a greater participation
in the affairs of the government. It is also consistent with the idea of
opening up access to government offices to a greater number of people and
not just to the members of a few entrenched families, as earlier discussed
in regard to political dynasties.207 In any case, allowing those in power to
practically self-perpetuate, which could be achieved through unfair means
simply because they are already in power, would be contrary to the very
ideals of a democratic and republican state. As then Justice (later, Chief
Justice) Panganiban wrote: “Such perpetuation [of officials or group of
officials in power] is anathema to democracy.”208
4) Proclamation of Martial Law or Suspension of the Privilege

of the Writ of Habeas Corpus and Citizen’s Suits
It is interesting to note that the 1987 Constitution has explicitly
provided for the recognition of the standing of a citizen to question the
constitutionality of the proclamation of martial law or the suspension
of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, thus obviating any discus-
sions about locus standi as a preliminary matter if ever such a suit is
brought. The Constitution specifically provides:
The Supreme Court may review, in an appropriate proceeding
filed by any citizen, the sufficiency of the factual basis of the pro-
clamation of martial law or the suspension of the privilege of the writ
or the extension thereof, and must promulgate its decision within
thirty days from its filing.209
207 Of Art. 8, §8 of the 1987 Constitution, it has been noted that:

“The prohibition will help eliminate so-called ‘political warlordism’ in provinces,
cities, and municipalities which in the past had been a source of abuse and,
therefore, lawlessness, and give young and enlightened leaders who have no
formidable political machinery or vested interests to speak of, a chance to be
elected.” (Hector S. De Leon, Philippine Constitutional Law: Principles and Cases
[Vol. 2], 1991 ed., at 507)
208 People’s Initiative for Reform, Modernization and Action (PIRMA) v. Commission
on Elections, GR No. 129754, 23 September 1997, cited in the separate opinion of Chief
Justice Panganiban in Lambino v. Commission on Elections, G.R. Nos. 174153 and G.R. No.
174299, 25 October 2006, n. 3, at 12, Advance Sheets)
209 Art. VII, §18, ¶3.

66 RENE B. GOROSPE
With the language of the Constitution, it is clear that there is no

requirement that the party bringing the action should be one directly
or substantially injured by the act of the President. Instead, any citizen
is deemed qualified – and deemed injured or stands to be injured – so as
to be vested with the requisite personality to go directly to the Supreme
Court for and on behalf of the other citizens because of the presumed
injury that may have been, or is likely to be, inflicted on the entire
citizenry if the matter is not immediately inquired into by the Court –
and rectified – if needed. This is indeed a symbolic, if not a significant,
constitutional vesting of standing on citizens. Instead of leaving the
parties to argue and the Court to deliberate on the issue of standing in the
face of the exercise of the drastic powers of the President to proclaim
martial law or suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, the
Constitution has directly knighted any citizen to go to the Supreme
Court to raise the question of factual sufficiency and not merely legal
or constitutional basis for such presidential actions.
5) Presidential Health and People’s Right to Information

It is rather amusing that a Constitution should contain a provi-
sion prescribing certain steps and safeguards to be undertaken whenever
a serious illness befalls the President. Thus, the Constitution states:
In case of serious illness of the President, the public shall be
informed of the state of his health. The Members of the Cabinet in
charge of national security and foreign relations and the Chief of
Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, shall not be denied
access to the President during such illness.210
This might just be one of the reactions to the Marcos years when
the people were kept guessing as to the real state of health of the strong-
man. Fr. Bernas explains, though, that “[t]he purpose of the first sentence
is to guarantee the people’s right to know about the state of the President’s
health, contrary to secretive practice in totalitarian governments.”211 Be
that as it may, it could be taken as another people-empowering provision
of the 1987 Constitution, designed to inform the particles of popular
sovereignty from whom all government power emanates about the
210 Art. VII, §12.

211 Bernas, op. cit., at 751.

LOCUS STANDI 67
true condition of whoever is presently at the helm of the governmental

machinery – that he or she is still in control and not anybody else.
In any event, this provision should be taken to signify that the
people have, again, a greater entitlement to know and to have a word in
the affairs of their government, to the extent of being given a right to
be informed of the real state of well-being of the President. The people
are not to be considered as mere uninterested spectators, officious
neighbors or nosy kibitzers looking into private and personal affairs.
They are intimately concerned with the ability of their leader to carry
on the tasks and to exercise the prerogatives momentarily vested in him.
If they find that the President, for instance, is no longer physically,
mentally or in any other manner capable of discharging the duties of his
office, then the people ought to know for whatever worth such infor-
mation may have for them. In fine, the President’s health is not just such
official’s or his immediate family’s concern. It is the nation’s, too.
6) Impeachment Complaints by Individuals

The Constitution, as a means of ensuring public accountability for
those officials occupying higher positions in the government, has provided
for impeachment as a disciplining mechanism. What is noteworthy in
the present provision is the fact that it allows a citizen to file a verified
complaint. Thus, it says: “A verified complaint may be filed by any Member
of the House of Representatives or by any citizen upon a resolution of
endorsement by any Member thereof, which shall be included in the
Order of Business within ten session days, and referred to the proper
Committee within three session days thereafter.”212
The previous constitutions did not have any similar provision.
Impeachment was purely a legislative undertaking from start to finish.
Under the 1935 Constitution, the House of Representatives, by a vote of
two-thirds of all its Members, had the sole power of impeachment, 213
while the Senate had the sole power to try all impeachments.214 Under
the 1973 Charter, which instituted a unicameral Batasang Pambansa, said
legislative body had the exclusive power to initiate, try, decide all cases
212 Art. XI, §3, ¶2; Emphasis supplied.

213 1935 Const., Art. IX, §2.
214 1935 Const., Art. IX, §3.

68 RENE B. GOROSPE
of impeachment.215 Nothing was said about the filing of complaints by

citizens.
The contrast between the 1987 Constitution with its predecessors
could only be seen as another indication of the constitutional design to
allow for more direct participation by the people in the affairs of their
government. If they cannot await their Congressmen to take action to
start the impeachment process moving, then they themselves may do it,
subject of course to the favorable endorsement of any member of the
House of Representatives. That single act might just be the needed nudge
that sets everything in motion.
7) Non-Governmental Organizations
“The State shall encourage non-governmental, community-based,
or sectoral organizations that promote the welfare of the nation.” 216
Thus declares the 1987 Constitution about non-governmental organi-
zations. Providing more teeth and substance to such policy, it goes on to
declare with greater specificity:
SECTION 15. The State shall respect the role of independent
people’s organizations to enable the people to pursue and protect,
within the democratic framework, their legitimate and collective
interests and aspirations through peaceful and lawful means.
People’s organizations are bona fide associations of citizens with
demonstrated capacity to promote the public interest and with iden-
tifiable leadership, membership, and structure.
SECTION 16. The right of the people and their organizations
to effective and reasonable participation at all levels of social,
political, and economic decision-making shall not be abridged. The
State shall, by law, facilitate the establishment of adequate consul-
tation mechanisms.217
In this regard, it is noteworthy that the incorporation of a provision

on people’s organizations traces its roots to the EDSA People Power
Revolution itself. The Court noted in Garcia v. Commission on Elections
that “[t]he successful use of people power to remove public officials who
215 1973 Const., Art. XIII, §3.

216 Art. II, §23.
217 Art. XIII.

LOCUS STANDI 69
have forfeited the trust of the electorate led to its firm institutionalization
of the 1987 Constitution. Its Article XIII expressly recognized the Role
and Rights of People’s Organizations.”218
Speaking of Section 16, Article XIII referred to above, Justice (now,
Chief Justice) Puno said: “This is another novel provision of the 1987
Constitution strengthening the sinews of the sovereignty of our people.”219
Further, while paying heed to what the Court said in Sanlakas v. Executive
Secretary220 that “[t]hese provisions have not changed the traditional rule
that only real parties in interest or those with standing, as the case may
be, may invoke the judicial power,” still they cannot simply be ignored for
their people-enabling value, specially when taken in combination with
the other provisions which similarly point to the direction of greater
empowerment for the citizenry. Words are not inert figures but living
organisms animated by the spirit of their essence and the philosophy of
their intended design.
8) Party-List System
Another innovation brought about by the 1987 Constitution is the
introduction of the party-list system. Under this set-up, twenty percent
(20%) of the House of Representatives is to come from party-list repre-
sentatives.
The House of Representatives shall be composed of not more
than two hundred and fifty members, unless otherwise fixed by
law, who shall be elected from legislative districts apportioned among
the provinces, cities, and the Metropolitan Manila area in accordance
with the number of their respective inhabitants, and on the basis
of a uniform and progressive ratio, and those who, as provided by
law, shall be elected through a party-list system of registered national,
regional, and sectoral parties or organizations.
The party-list representatives shall constitute twenty per centum
of the total number of representatives including those under the
party list. For three consecutive terms after the ratification of this
Constitution, one-half of the seats allocated to party-list repre-
218 227 SCRA 100 (1993), at 109.

219 Dissenting opinion in Santiago v. Commission on Elections, 270 SCRA 106 (1997),
at 175.
220 421 SCRA 656 (2004), at 667.

70 RENE B. GOROSPE
sentatives shall be filled, as provided by law, by selection or election

from the labor, peasant, urban poor, indigenous cultural commu-
nities, women, youth, and such other sectors as may be provided by
law, except the religious sector.221
It is to be underscored that the party-list system is another manner

of broadening the participation of the people in their own governance.
It is a means by which the marginalized and underrepresented sectors of
society are given a better and fairer fighting chance to be represented in
determining the destiny of the nation through law-making. “The intent
of the Constitution is clear: to give genuine power to the people, not only
by giving more law to those who have less in life, but more so by enabling
them to become veritable lawmakers themselves.” 222 These sectors may
include labor, peasant, fisherfolk, urban poor, indigenous cultural com-
munities, elderly, handicapped, women, youth, veterans, overseas workers,
and professionals. 223 “[T]he party-list system seeks to enable certain
Filipino citizens – specifically those belonging to marginalized and under-
represented sectors, organizations and parties – to be elected to the House
of Representatives.”224 And this is particularly critical since “[t]raditionally,
political power does not necessarily emanate from the size of one’s cons-
tituency; indeed, it is likely to arise more directly from the number and
amount of one’s bank accounts.”225 As the Court further explained:
Crucial to the resolution of this case is the fundamental social
justice principle that those who have less in life should have more
in law. The party-list system is one such tool intended to benefit
those who have less in life. It gives the great masses of our people
genuine hope and genuine power. It is a message to the destitute
and the prejudiced, and even to those in the underground, that
change is possible. It is an invitation for them to come out of their
limbo and seize the opportunity.226
221 Art. VI, §5, ¶¶1-2. The mechanics for the party-list system are set out in Republic
Act No. 7941 (1995).
222 Ang Bagong Bayani-OFW Labor Party v. Commission on Elections, 359 SCRA 698
(2001), at 719. See also Veterans Federation Party v. Commission on Elections, 342 SCRA
244 (2000).
223 See §5, R.A. 7941.
224 Ang Bagong Bayani-OFW Labor Party v. Commission on Elections, op. cit., at 721.
225 Id., at 722.
226 Id., at 732.

LOCUS STANDI 71
It could thus be readily realized that the party-list system is just

another means of people empowerment, an instrument to broaden the
participation of those who might have traditionally been left out of
elective offices simply because of their status in life which made it quite
difficult to compete in the normal electoral process.
9) Policy of Transparency
The Constitution declares: “Subject to reasonable conditions pres-
cribed by law, the State adopts and implements a policy of full public dis-
closure of all its transactions involving public interest.”227 In addition, it
is also declared that “[t]he State recognizes the vital role of communication
and information in nation-building.”228 This further strengthens and make
more robust the guaranteed right of the people to be informed.
The right of the people to information on matters of public
concern shall be recognized. Access to official records, and to
documents, and papers pertaining to official acts, transactions,
or decisions, as well as to government research data used as basis
for policy development, shall be afforded the citizen, subject to
such limitations as may be provided by law.229
A necessary corollary to the philosophy that the people are the

repository of sovereign power is their entitlement to know and be
informed about what is happening in the government, not only in the
laws that govern them but also in relation to the acts, transactions and
other activities of those to whom governmental power has been entrusted
in the meantime. One could not intelligently and intelligibly exercise
one’s prerogative as ultimate decision-maker if he or she does not really
know much, or is clueless. Any judgment rendered would likely be erro-
neous if not coming from an informed position. “History shows that the
curse of government is not always venality; secrecy is one of the most
227 Art. II, §28.

228 Art. II, §24.
229 Art. III, §7. While this provision has its counterpart provision in the 1973 Consti-
tution, the other two provisions – Art. II, §§24 and 28 – do not have any counterparts.
In Legaspi v. Civil Service Commission, 150 SCRA 530 (1987), at 537, the Court
noted that the guarantee of the right of the people to be informed “has been further
enhanced in the New Constitution with the adoption of a policy of full public disclosure.”

72 RENE B. GOROSPE
tempting coverups to save regimes from criticism.”230 Accordingly, the

need for transparency in government operations so that the people know
the real score and could then proceed to make an informed judgment as
to those in government and not simply make decisions from a blind-
folded position of ignorance.
10) Expanded Judicial Power

Relevant to the idea of people empowerment is another novel
feature of the 1987 Charter – the expansion of judicial power. The Constitu-
tion has added a new paragraph to the traditional manner231 of allocating
judicial power to the Supreme Court and inferior courts by declaring that:
Judicial power includes the duty of the courts of justice to settle
actual controversies involving rights which are legally demandable
and enforceable, and to determine whether or not there has been a
grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction
on the part of any branch or instrumentality of the Government.232
Explaining the background for this new provision, Justice Gutierrez

stated:
This new provision was enacted to preclude this Court from
using the political question doctrine as a means to avoid having to
make decisions simply because they are too controversial, displeasing
to the President or Congress, inordinately unpopular, or which may
be ignored and not enforced.
The framers of the Constitution believed that the free use of
the political question doctrine allowed the Court during the Marcos
230 Justice Douglas, dissenting in United States v. Richardson, 418 U.S. 166 (1974), at
198.
231 The 1987 Constitution provides in Art. VIII, §1: “The judicial power shall be
vested in one Supreme Court and in such lower courts as may be established by law.” This
is basically a reproduction of the language of the previous constitutions.
Article X, §1 of the 1973 Constitution provided: “The Judicial power shall be vested
in one Supreme Court and in such inferior court as may be established by law. The
Batasang Pambansa shall have the power to define, prescribe and apportion the juris-
diction of the various courts, but may not deprive the Supreme Court of its jurisdiction
over cases enumerated in Section five thereof.”
On the other hand, the Article VIII, §1 of the 1935 Charter stated: “The judicial power
shall be vested in one Supreme Court and in such inferior courts as may be established
by law.”
232 Art. VIII, §1, ¶2.

LOCUS STANDI 73
years to fall back on prudence, institutional difficulties, complexity

of issues, momentousness of consequences or a fear that it was extra-
vagantly extending judicial power in the cases where it refused to
examine and strike down an exercise of authoritarian power. Paren-
thetically, at least two of the respondents and their counsel were
among the most vigorous critics of Mr. Marcos (the main petitioner)
and his use of the political question doctrine. The Constitution
was accordingly amended. We are now precluded by its mandate
from refusing to invalidate a political use of power through a con-
venient resort to the political question doctrine. We are compelled
to decide what would have been non-justiceable under our decisions
interpreting earlier fundamental charters.233
In the same vein is the observation of Justice Mendoza:

The statement that the judicial power includes the duty to
determine whether there has been a grave abuse of discretion was
inserted in Art. VIII, §1 not really to give the judiciary a roving com-
mission to right any wrong it perceives but to preclude courts from
invoking the political question doctrine in order to evade the decision
of certain cases even where violations of civil liberties are alleged.234
In the sponsorship speech of its proponent, former Chief Justice,

then a Constitutional Commissioner, Roberto Concepcion explained:
[T]his is actually a product of our experience during martial
law. As a matter of fact, it has some antecedents in the past, but the
role of the judiciary during the deposed regime was marred
considerably by the circumstance that in a number of cases
against the government, which then had no legal defense at all,
the solicitor general set up the defense of political questions and
got away with it. As a consequence, certain principles concerning
particularly the writ of habeas corpus, that is, the authority of courts
to order the release of political detainees, and other matters related
to the operation and effect of martial law failed because the govern-
ment set up the defense of political question. And the Supreme
Court said: “Well, since it is political, we have no authority to pass
upon it.” The Committee on the Judiciary feels that this was not
a proper solution of the questions involved. It did not merely
request an encroachment upon the rights of the people, but
233 Dissenting opinion in Marcos v. Manglapus, 177 SCRA 668 (1991), at 708.
234
Separate opinion in Cruz v. Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources, 347
SCRA 128 (2000), at 314; Emphasis supplied.

74 RENE B. GOROSPE
it, in effect, encouraged further violations thereof during the

martial law regime.235
Highlighting the significance of this grant of power – or the impo-

sition of a duty upon the Court – then Justice (now, Chief Justice) Puno
wrote:
Two lessons were not lost to the members of the Constitutional
Commission that drafted the 1987 Constitution. The first was the
need to grant this Court the express power to review the exercise
of the powers a commander-in-chief by the President and deny it
of any discretion to decline its exercise. The second was the need to
compel the Court to be pro-active by expanding its jurisdiction and,
thus, reject its laid back stance against acts constituting grave
abuse of discretion on the part of any branch or instrumentality of
government.236
* * * * *
In fine, the express grant simply stresses the mandatory duty of
this Court to check the exercise of the commander-in-chief powers
of the President. It eliminated the discretion of the Court not to wield
its power of review thru the use of the political question doctrine.237
Expanding the power of the courts necessarily carries implica-

tions in areas other than the political question doctrine. “Relaxation of
standing requirements is directly related to the expansion of judicial
power.”238 The present Chief Justice himself has stated that “[t]he once
stubborn disinclination to decide constitutional issues due to lack of
locus standi is incompatible with the expansion of judicial power mandated
in Section 1 of Article VIII.”239 Significantly, even before the 1987 Consti-
tution, there had already been reference to a liberalized approach in
contrast to a bygone era of restrictive treatment of the issue. Thus, we
find this passage from Aquino v. Commission on Elections,240 a 1975 case:
235 Francisco, Jr. v. House of Representatives, 415 SCRA 44 (2003), at 125, citing I
Record of the Constitutional Commission.
236 Separate opinion in Integrated Bar of the Philippines v. Zamora, 338 SCRA 81
(2000), at 132; Emphasis in the original.
237 Id., at 135.
238 Justice Powell, concurring in United States v. Richardson, 418 U.S. 166 (1974),
at 188.
239 Dissenting opinion in Kilosbayan, Incorporated v. Guingona, Jr., 232 SCRA 110
(1994), at 169.
240
62 SCRA 275 (1975), at 308, cited by Justice Davide, Jr. in his dissent in Kilos-
bayan, Incorporated v. Morato, 246 SCRA 549 (1994), at 618.

LOCUS STANDI 75
Then there is the attack on the standing of the petitioners, as

vindicating at most what they consider a public right and not
protecting their rights as individuals. This is to conjure the spectre
of the public right dogma or an inhibition to parties intent on
keeping public officials staying on the path of constitutionalism. As
was so well put by Jaffe: “The protection of private rights is an
essential constituent of public interest and, conversely, without a
well-ordered state there could be no enforcement of private rights.
Private and public interests are, both in a substantive and proce-
dural sense, aspects of the totality of the legal order. Moreover,
petitioners have convincingly shown that in their capacity as tax-
payers, their standing to sue has been amply demonstrated. There
would be a retreat from the liberal approach followed in Pascual
v. Secretary of Public Works, foreshadowed by the very decision
of People v. Vera where the doctrine was first fully discussed, if
we act differently now. I do not think we are prepared to take that
step. Respondent, however, would hark back to the American
Supreme Court doctrine in Mellon v. Frothingham, with their claim
that what petitioners possess “is an interest which is shared in
common by other people and is comparatively so minute and indeter-
minate as to afford any basis and assurance that the judicial process
can act on it.” That is to speak in the language of the bygone era,
even in the United States. For as Chief Justice Warren clearly pointed
out in the later case of Flast v. Cohen, the barrier thus set up if not
breached has definitely been lowered. The weakness of these
particular defenses is thus quite apparent.
Of significance also is what the Court said about the reversal of

the traditional rules about the political question doctrine as a result of
this novel provision in the Constitution:
To a great degree, the 1987 Constitution has narrowed the reach of
the political question doctrine .... Heretofore, the judiciary has
focused on the “thou shalt not’s” of the Constitution directed
against the exercise of its jurisdiction. With the new provision,
however, courts are given a greater prerogative to determine what
it can do to prevent grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack
or excess of jurisdiction on the part of any branch or instrumentality
of government. Clearly, the new provision did not just grant the
Court power of doing nothing. In sync and symmetry with this intent
are other provisions of the 1987 Constitution trimming the so called
political thicket.241
241 Estrada v. Desierto, 353 SCRA 452 (2001), at 491.

76 RENE B. GOROSPE
Ironically, while the expanded judicial power may have imposed a

duty and an obligation that the courts may not refuse to discharge relative
to the so-called political questions, locus standi may also be seized upon
as a means to avoid resolving issues that the courts may be reluctant to
touch – some sort of a substitute or surrogate to the political question
doctrine.242 But this should not be the case. On the contrary, the expan-
sion of judicial power should instead be an additional reason why the rule
on standing be relaxed and liberalized. In this regard, too, the use of the
“capable of repetition yet evading review”243 exception to moot questions
may further buttress the argument for liberalized approach to the standing
doctrine.
242 In the case of the American experience, Tribe, has made the following observation:
“It remains the case, however, that using the various concepts of standing as
verbal proxies for conclusions about the most important questions of federal
judicial power has on occasion meant overburdening standing doctrine with
concerns that bear little relation to whether a particular litigant is properly before
a court. In so using concepts of standing, the Court has supplanted well-
recognized doctrines that seem better suited to the issues at stake – including both
(a) doctrines barring collusive, unripe, or moot lawsuits and excluding political
questions from Article III adjudications; and (b) principles of judicial discretion
flowing from legislative grants of jurisdiction and common law traditions.”
(American Constitutional Law. Vol. I [3rd ed. (2000)], at 392)
243 In Sanlakas v. Executive Secretary, 421 SCRA 656 (2004), at 664-665, the Court
came up with this pronouncement:
“The Court agrees with the Solicitor General that the issuance of Procla-
mation No. 435, declaring that the state of rebellion has ceased to exist, has
rendered the case moot. As a rule, courts do not adjudicate moot cases, judicial
power being limited to the determination of ‘actual controversies.’ Nevertheless,
courts will decide a question, otherwise moot, if it is ‘capable of repetition yet
evading review.’ The case at bar is one such case.
“Once before, the President on May 1, 2001 declared a state of rebellion and
called upon the AFP and the PNP to suppress the rebellion through Proclamation
No. 38 and General Order No. 1. On that occasion, ‘“an angry and violent mob
armed with explosives, firearms, bladed weapons, clubs, stones and other deadly
weapons” assaulted and attempted to break into Malacañang.’ Petitions were filed
before this Court assailing the validity of the President’s declaration. Five days
after such declaration, however, the President lifted the same. The mootness of
the petitions in Lacson v. Perez and accompanying cases precluded this Court
from addressing the constitutionality of the declaration.
“To prevent similar questions from reemerging, we seize this opportunity
to finally lay to rest the validity of the declaration of a state of rebellion in the
exercise of the President’s calling out power, the mootness of the petitions not-
withstanding.”

LOCUS STANDI 77
If the grant of power – which was also an imposition of a duty at

the same time – was intended to preclude the courts from shunning involve-
ment in asserted political questions, then to the same extent must the
same be seen as a mandate of the courts to afford the citizens greater
access to the judicial machinery as a way of resolving constitutional issues
they raise, either merely as such citizens or as taxpayers. The expanded
judicial power should be seen as just one of the people-empowering
mechanisms instituted in the 1987 Charter. To the extent that the courts
have a greater oversight into the affairs of those in the political depart-
ments, to that extent does it also signify the people’s right to avail of the
judicial machinery as a tool to check their government and its officials.
11) Other Considerations

In addition to the constitutional provisions that directly empower
the people, mention could also be made of the fact that the powers of
the Ombudsman under the 1987 Charter have been expanded, fortified
and more extensively set out. So, too, is the constitutional policy of
affording to local government units more autonomy.
Instead of simply leaving certain details to Congress like what the
1973 Constitution did,244 the present Constitution – after characterizing
the Ombudsman and his Deputies245 as “protectors of the people”246 –
In David v. Macapagal-Arroyo, 489 SCRA 160 (2006), at 214-215, the Court also held:
“The ‘moot and academic’ principle is not a magical formula that can auto-
matically dissuade the courts in resolving a case. Courts will decide cases, otherwise
moot and academic, if: first, there is a grave violation of the Constitution; second,
the exceptional character of the situation and the paramount public interest is
involved; third, when constitutional issue raised requires formulation of control-
ling principles to guide the bench, the bar, and the public; and fourth, the case
is capable of repetition yet evading review.”
244 “The Batasang Pambansa shall create an office of the Ombudsman, to be known
as Tanodbayan, which shall receive and investigate complaints relative to public office,
including those in government-owned or controlled corporations, make appropriate recom-
mendations, and in case of failure of justice as defined by law, file and prosecute the corres-
ponding criminal, civil, or administrative case before the proper court or body.” (Art. XIII, §6)
245“There is hereby created the independent Office of the Ombudsman, composed
of the Ombudsman to be known as Tanodbayan, one overall Deputy, and at least one Deputy
each for Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. A separate Deputy for the military establishment
may likewise be appointed.” (Art. XI, §5)
246
“The Ombudsman and his Deputies, as protectors of the people, shall act promptly
on complaints filed in any form or manner against public officials or employees of the

78 RENE B. GOROSPE
took pains to set out the more important ones. 247 And, in this regard
one must not lose sight of the constitutional design which directs the
Ombudsman and his Deputies to “act promptly on complaints filed in any
form or manner” and its relation to people empowerment, specifically in
allowing for anonymous letters as basis for the start of an investigation.
[I]t is apparent that in permitting the filing of complaints “in any form
and in [any] manner,” the framers of the Constitution took into
account the well-known reticence of the people which keep them
from complaining against official wrongdoings. As this Court had
occasion to point out, the Office of the Ombudsman is different from
the other investigatory and prosecutory agencies of the government
because those subject to its jurisdiction are public officials who,
through official pressure and influence, can quash, delay or dismiss
investigations held against them. On the other hand complainants
Government, or any agency, subdivision or instrumentality thereof, including government-

owned or controlled corporations, and shall, in appropriate cases, notify the complainants
of the actions taken and the result thereof.” (Art. XI, §12)
247 “The Office of the Ombudsman shall have the following powers, functions, and
duties:
“(1) Investigate on its own, or on complaint by any person, any act or omission of
any public official, employee, office or agency, when such act or omission appears to be
illegal, unjust, improper, or inefficient.
“(2) Direct, upon complaint or at its own instance, any public official or employee
of the Government, or any subdivision, agency or instrumentality thereof, as well as
of any government-owned or controlled corporation with original charter, to perform
and expedite any act or duty required by law, or to stop, prevent, and correct any
abuse or impropriety in the performance of duties.
“(3) Direct the officer concerned to take appropriate action against a public official
or employee at fault, and recommend his removal, suspension, demotion, fine, censure,
or prosecution, and ensure compliance therewith.
“(4) Direct the officer concerned, in any appropriate case, and subject to such
limitations as may be provided by law, to furnish it with copies of documents relating
to contracts and transactions entered into by his office involving the disbursement or
use of public funds or properties, and report any irregularity to the Commission on
Audit for appropriate action.
(5) Request any government agency for assistance and information necessary
in the discharge of its responsibilities, and to examine, if necessary, pertinent records
and documents.
(6) Publicize matters covered by its investigation when circumstances so warrant
and with due prudence.
(7) Determine the causes of inefficiency, red tape, mismanagement, fraud, and
corruption in the Government and make recommendations for their elimination and
the observance of high standards of ethics and efficiency.
(8) Promulgate its rules and procedure and exercise such other powers or
perform such functions or duties as may be provided by law.

LOCUS STANDI 79
are more often than not poor and simple folk who cannot afford
to hire lawyers.248
Thus, with such a simplified procedure not governed by technicalities the

people are not unnecessarily hampered or constricted in bringing up and
ventilating their grievances and other concerns through an office they
should and could rely on.
Speaking of the present kind of Ombudsman that obtains in the
Philippines compared to what it is in the place of its origin, the Court said
in Uy v. Sandiganbayan:249
Clearly, the Philippine Ombudsman departs from the classical
Ombudsman model whose function is merely to receive and process
the people’s complaints against corrupt and abusive government
personnel. The Philippine Ombudsman, as protector of the people,
is armed with the power to prosecute erring public officers and
employees, giving him an active role in the enforcement of laws on
anti-graft and corrupt practices and such other offenses that may
be committed by such officers and employees. The legislature has
vested him with broad powers to enable him to implement his own
actions. Recognizing the importance of this power, the Court cannot
derogate the same by limiting it only to cases cognizable by the
Sandiganbayan. It is apparent from the history and the language of
the present law that the legislature intended such power to apply
not only to cases within the jurisdiction of the Sandiganbayan but
also those within the jurisdiction of regular courts.
The constitutional provisions on an enhanced Ombudsman, taken

in light of the way Congress has given them more life and vibrancy and
as further liberally expounded by the Supreme Court, could only be
understood as further giving the people greater oversight and supervision
over government officials and employees.
On the other hand, the provisions on local autonomy have also
been further buttressed by the 1987 Constitution. While local autonomy
may have already been a concern of the 1973 Constitution,250 the 1987
248 Almonte v. Vasquez, 244 SCRA 286 (1995), at 304. See also Garcia v. Miro, 397
SCRA 41 (2003), at 49-50.
249 354 SCRA 651 (2001), at 666.
250 The Declaration of Principles and State Policies of the 1973 Constitution provided:
“The State shall guarantee and promote the autonomy of local government units, especially
the barrio, to ensure their fullest development as self-reliant communities.” (Art. II, §10)
Article XI was devoted to local governments.

80 RENE B. GOROSPE
Charter showed greater solicitude for the welfare and advancement of

local communities.251
In recent years, the increasing social challenges of the times
expanded the scope of state activity, and taxation has become a tool
to realize social justice and the equitable distribution of wealth,
economic progress and the protection of local industries as well as
public welfare and similar objectives. Taxation assumes even greater
significance with the ratification of the 1987 Constitution. Thence-
forth, the power to tax is no longer vested exclusively on Congress;
local legislative bodies are now given direct authority to levy taxes,
fees and other charges pursuant to Article X, section 5 of the 1987
Constitution, viz:
Section 5. Each Local Government unit shall have the
power to create its own sources of revenue, to levy taxes,
fees and charges subject to such guidelines and limitations
as the Congress may provide, consistent with the basic
policy of local autonomy. Such taxes, fees and charges shall
accrue exclusively to the Local Governments.
This paradigm shift results from the realization that genuine
development can be achieved only by strengthening local autonomy
and promoting decentralization of governance. For a long time, the
country’s highly centralized government structure has bred a culture
of dependence among local government leaders upon the national
leadership. It has also “dampened the spirit of initiative, innovation
and imaginative resilience in matters of local development on the
part of local government leaders.” The only way to shatter this
culture of dependence is to give the LGUs a wider role in the delivery
of basic services, and confer them sufficient powers to generate
their own sources for the purpose. To achieve this goal, section 3 of
Article X of the 1987 Constitution mandates Congress to enact a
local government code that will, consistent with the basic policy of
local autonomy, set the guidelines and limitations to this grant of
taxing powers, ...252
251 While the Declaration of Principles and State Policies states “[t]he State shall
ensure the autonomy of local governments” (Art. II, §25), the Constitution devotes Article
X to “guaranteeing and promoting the autonomy” of local government units. (Province of
Batangas v. Romulo, 429 SCRA 736 (2004), at 758. One way of doing this is guaranteeing
these government units a just share in the national taxes which shall be automatically
released to them. (Art. X, §6) In this regard, it is to be remembered that “[a] basic feature
of local fiscal autonomy is the automatic release of the shares of LGUs in the national
internal revenue.” (Pimentel, Jr. v. Aguirre, 336 SCRA 201 [2000], at 220)
252 National Power Corporation v. City of Cabanatuan, 401 SCRA 259 (2003), at
270-271.

LOCUS STANDI 81
Thus, to the extent that the people in the local government units
have been given the ability and the power to have a greater and more
direct control of their own destiny, to that extent have they also been
empowered.
These considerations would then again, taken together with those
features of the 1987 Constitution identified and discussed earlier, sum up
as people-empowering provisions. The other provisions of the Constitution,
even those which are already a mere reiteration and carry-over of past
constitutions and experience should accordingly be seen in that new light
and not simply considered in accordance with old, traditional and habitual
way of dealing with things. Changes and modifications mean some thing.
They could not simply be ignored as if nothing happened. In the same
way that body movements have their own nuances and meanings, consti-
tutional language departing from those of past charters could only be
understood as conveying a different message.
People Empowerment and Locus Standi
All the foregoing novel provisions introduced by the 1987 Consti-

tution point to the direction of people empowerment, a thrust that must
be given recognition and reality not only in regard to the specific and
particular aspects to which they directly relate but to be taken in a holistic
and systematic manner to affect, alter and modify the manner in which
certain traditional rules are to be considered. One such rule is that on
locus standi.
The rule on standing through the years, and well even after the
adoption of the 1987 Constitution, has been to treat it in the same way
that it has been seen in light of the American constitutional law and
Philippine case law. But then, the same has sorely failed to take into
account the changed and altered legal and political landscape brought
about by the 1986 People Power Revolution and the fundamental law
born out of it. As shown above, the 1987 Constitution introduced several
provisions which directly indicate its intention to enable the people to
have a greater say in the running, and a firmer grip on the affairs, of
their government. Thus, they are now given a piece of the law-making
authority, not only in regard to ordinary laws but even in relation to
proposing amendments to the Constitution. In addition, they have also
been given a right to have a greater say in the affairs and concerns of

82 RENE B. GOROSPE
the presidency. They now have the right to know about the real state of
health of the Chief Executive. Further, they are accorded the personality
to directly assail before the Supreme Court the exercise of the Commander-
in-Chief ’s prerogative to proclaim martial law or to suspend the privilege
of the writ of habeas corpus. Further, a citizen himself or herself can file
a complaint for impeachment. Then, all of these have to be considered
also in relation to the grant of an expanded judicial power to the courts,
to enable them to entertain and adjudicate suits which may have been
thrown out in the past on the excuse or pretext of their being covered by
the political question doctrine.
And, if the foregoing features and characteristics of the 1987
Charter are not enough, one also has to consider the other provisions
all designed to broaden the people’s participation in their government,
such as the imposition of term limits, the mandate for Congress to
provide for the outlawing of political dynasties, the provision for the
party-list system to empower the marginalized and underrepresented
sectors of society to have a voice in Congress, as well as the recognition
of non-government organizations.
While all of these translate to a greater empowerment of the people
not only in legislation and in the affairs of the executive branch, they
should also be seen as affecting likewise the way by which the courts deal
with citizens’ actions, specifically in relation to the matter of locus standi.
If the people have been given so much more in relation to the running
of their government, should they not also be deemed to have been given
a greater personality when it comes to bringing of suits before the courts
in order to vindicate their rights, liberties, freedoms and prerogatives?
If they could legislate, if they have the right to know the state of health
of the President, could they not also have a greater voice in seeking
the assistance of the courts in matters that were traditionally within
such judicial tribunals’ competence and authority to inquire into and there-
after make authoritative pronouncements on matters of law and consti-
tutionalism?
The Court, even before the present Constitution was in the horizons
declared:
It being manifest that there are powers which the Convention
may not and cannot validly assert, much less exercise, in the light
of the existing Constitution, the simple question arises, should an
act of the Convention be assailed by a citizen as being among those

LOCUS STANDI 83
not granted to or inherent in it, according to the existing Consti-

tution, who can decide whether such a contention is correct or not? It
is of the very essence of the rule of law that somehow somewhere
the power and duty to resolve such a grave constitutional question
must be lodged on some authority, or we would have to confess that
the integrated system of government established by our founding
fathers contains a wide vacuum no intelligent man could ignore,
which is naturally unworthy of their learning, experience and craft-
manship in constitution-making.253
The courts are there to provide solutions and guidance when it comes to
legal and constitutional problems of the people. Should they turn away
the suitor on the mere excuse of lack of standing as seen from the vantage
point of past constitutions, entirely forgetting that the present Charter
has provided for a different perspective?
Locus Standi: Revisit, Review, and Reformulation
Taken individually and isolated from the rest, each provision of

the Constitution on people empowerment may not mean as much.
But taken together to show the design, the philosophy and the grand
picture, it could not be denied that they mean much more than meets
the eye. They have repercussions and ramifications greater than their
immediately apparent effect. This, indeed is one occasion where the
whole is greater than the sum of all its parts. There is therefore a need to
revisit the traditional rules on standing, and review them in light of the
new provisions in the 1987 Charter and thereafter come up with a subs-
tantially different reformulation of the rules and standards of the game.
The new provisions could not just be pushed to the side and ignored
or belittled and the courts continue on with the usual routine and habit
of doing things. One could not just keep on relying on past precedents
like nothing has changed. In this regard, what Justice Regalado said relative
to clinging on to old traditional ways of following precedents appears
apropos:
[A]s ultimate arbiters of the law, we cannot and we should not con-
tinue to cleave with obstinate tenacity or persist in citing with
rote-like consistency clearly inapposite or inapplicable doctrines
catalogued in works notable not for logical analysis but by their
253 Tolentino v. Commission on Elections, 41 SCRA 702 (1971), at 716.

84 RENE B. GOROSPE
reliance on the numerical weight of cases decided on the bases of

disparate factual situations, or by reason of a slavish obsession for
footnotes. Perpetuating a misconception spawned by the inertia of
cavalier reliance on supposed precedents is a disservice to the
doctrine of stare decisis.254
Also, if the Court was able to quote favorably what Fr. Bernas said
about cutting American umbilical cords255 when it comes to foreign juris-
prudence relative to impeachment, should not the same principle apply
with greater force when it comes to locus standi specially when seen in
light of several unmistakable home-grown provisions which have no
counterparts in the U.S. Constitution? As the Court said in Francisco, Jr.
v. House of Representatives:
Respondents’ and intervenors’ reliance upon American juris-

prudence, the American Constitution and American authorities
cannot be credited to support the proposition that the Senate’s “sole
power to try and decide impeachment cases,” as provided for under
Art. XI, Sec. 3(6) of the Constitution, is a textually demonstrable
constitutional commitment of all issues pertaining to impeachment
to the legislature, to the total exclusion of the power of judicial review
to check and restrain any grave abuse of the impeachment process.
Nor can it reasonably support the interpretation that it necessarily
confers upon the Senate the inherently judicial power to determine
constitutional questions incident to impeachment proceedings.
Said American jurisprudence and authorities, much less the
American Constitution, are of dubious application for these are no
longer controlling within our jurisdiction and have only limited per-
suasive merit insofar as Philippine constitutional law is concerned. As
held in the case of Garcia vs. COMELEC, “[i]n resolving constitutional
disputes, [this Court] should not be beguiled by foreign jurisprudence
some of which are hardly applicable because they have been dictated
by different constitutional settings and needs.” Indeed, although
the Philippine Constitution can trace its origins to that of the United
States, their paths of development have long since diverged. In the
colorful words of Father Bernas, “[w]e have cut the umbilical cord.”
254 Justice Regalado, separate opinion in People v. Pineda, 219 SCRA 1 (1993), at 27-28.
255“Indeed, although the Philippine Constitution can trace its origins to that of the
United States, their paths of development have long since diverged. In the colorful words
of Father Bernas, ‘[w]e have cut the umbilical cord.’” (Francisco, Jr. v. House of Representatives,
415 SCRA 44 [2003], at 130)

LOCUS STANDI 85
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 instru-
mentality.256
Related to this aspect is what the Court said almost a hundred

years ago while the country was setting up its own home-grown legal
concepts and principles:
So much for the authorities. For the nonce we would prefer to
forget them entirely, and here in the Philippines, being in the agree-
able state of breaking new ground, would rather desire our decision
to rest on a strong foundation of reason and justice than on a weak
one of blind adherence to tradition and precedent. Moreover, we
believe that an unbiased consideration of the history of the consti-
tutional provision will disclose that our conclusion is in exact accord
with the causes which led to its adoption.257
The Court then went on to state that the provision then under conside-
ration – the privilege against self-incrimination – “should here be approached
in no blindly worshipful spirit, but with a judicious and a judicial appre-
ciation of both its benefits and its abuses.”258
It is never too late to revisit and reexamine closely held views,
even if steeped in tradition and encrusted in inertia of habit if it is
shown that indeed there have been significant changes which cast a
different light on a changed landscape. In the U.S. itself, it was noted
that “the law of standing has for some time been one of the most criti-
cized aspects of constitutional law. Certainly, ‘[s]tanding to litigate often
turns on imprecise distinctions and requires difficult line drawing.’” 259
If such be the case in the American milieu, should it not all the more
be a strong reason for a review and revision in the Philippines specially
256 415 SCRA 44 (2003), at 130-131.

257 Villaflor v. Summers, 41 Phil 62 (1920), at 68.
258 Ibid.
259 Tribe, American Constitutional Law. Vol. I [3rd ed. (2000)], at 390.

86 RENE B. GOROSPE
as it has an entirely new Constitution with novel people-empowering

provisions while the U.S. Constitution has basically been the same for
more than 200 years?
Further, what was said by the Court in Tan v. Commission on
Elections260 might as well apply here, mutatis mutandis:
Opportunity to re-examine the views formerly held in said cases
is now afforded the present Court. The reasons in the mentioned
cases invoked by respondents herein were formerly considered
acceptable because of the views then taken that local autonomy
would be better promoted. However, even this consideration no
longer retains persuasive value.
In regard to breaking with tradition, it has been observed that

“New music always sounds loud to old ears. Beethoven seemed to make
more noise than Mozart; Liszt was noisier than Beethoven; Schoenberg
and Stravinsky, noisier than any of their predecessors.” 261 Yes, at first it
may indeed sound that new and strange music would arrive as unwelcome
or even detestable noise but after some time, after we would have shed
off our prejudice borne out of habit and tradition, we may find a more
open ear to allow for reception and appreciation of a melody wafting in
the air, conveyed by a different tune, a different beat, and a different
vessel. Living in a different political clime must necessarily call for
adjustments in the manner of looking at law to take into account the
altered conditions.
Along with the political question doctrine which is deemed to
have been substantially altered by the addition of the second paragraph
of Section 1, Article VIII of the Constitution, the same should also be
said about the rule on locus standi. They should go hand in hand, and not
as if the latter has become the substitute for the former for the purpose
of enabling the courts to excuse themselves from pronouncing judgment
on politically sensitive matters. The 1987 Charter provisions on people
empowerment should be seen in light of a design and a philosophy under
which the people are deemed to have retained and reserved to them-
selves more of the sovereign power that inheres in them instead of
260 142 SCRA 727 (1986), 745.

261 N. Slonimsky, Lexicon of Musical Invective: Critical Assaults on Composers
Since Beethoven’s Time 18 (1953), cited by Justice Marshall in his dissenting opinion in
Ward v. Rock Against Racism, 491 U.S. 781 [1989], n. 7, at 810.

LOCUS STANDI 87
having delegated them to their agents, who, as their experience has

shown, have betrayed them in the past. In the same manner that residual
power – in addition to those expressly conferred by the Constitution –
has been recognized as possessed by the President,262 the people should
also be accorded that presumption and prerogative. In this connection,
262 See Marcos v. Manglapus, 177 SCRA 668 (1989) and Sanlakas v. Executive
Secretary, 421 SCRA 656 (2004).
“[W]e hold the view that although the 1987 Constitution imposes limitations on
the exercise of specific powers of the President, it maintains intact what is traditionally
considered as within the scope of ‘executive power.’ Corollarily, the powers of the President
cannot be said to be limited only to the specific powers enumerated in the Constitution.
In other words, executive power is more than the sum of specific powers so enumerated.”
(Marcos v. Manglapus, 177 SCRA 668 [1989], at 691-692)
Further on, the Court declared: “To the President, the problem is one of balancing
the general welfare and the common good against the exercise of rights of certain indivi-
duals. The power involved is the President’s residual power to protect the general welfare
of the people. It is founded on the duty of the President, as steward of the people. To para-
phrase Theodore Roosevelt, it is not only the power of the President but also his duty
to do anything not forbidden by the Constitution or the laws that the needs of the nation
demand [See Corwin, supra, at 153]. It is a power borne by the President’s duty to preserve
and defend the Constitution. It also may be viewed as a power implicit in the President’s
duty to take care that the laws are faithfully executed [see Hyman, The American President,
where the author advances the view that an allowance of discretionary power is unavoid-
able in any government and is best lodged in the President].
* * * * *
“What we are saying in effect is that the request or demand of the Marcoses to be
allowed to return to the Philippines cannot be considered in the light solely of the consti-
tutional provisions guaranteeing liberty of abode and the right to travel, subject to certain
exceptions, or of case law which clearly never contemplated situations even remotely similar
to the present one. It must be treated as a matter that is appropriately addressed to those
residual unstated powers of the President which are implicit in and correlative to the
paramount duty residing in that office to safeguard and protect general welfare. In that
context, such request or demand should submit to the exercise of a broader discretion on
the part of the President to determine whether it must be granted or denied.” (Id., at 694-695)
On motion for reconsideration, the Court further declared: “[I]it cannot be denied
that the President, upon whom executive power is vested, has unstated residual powers
which are implied from the grant of executive power and which are necessary for her to
comply with her duties under the Constitution. The powers of the President are not
limited to what are expressly enumerated in the article on the Executive Department and in
scattered provisions of the Constitution. This is so, notwithstanding the avowed intent of
the members of the Constitutional Commission of 1986 to limit the powers of the President
as a reaction to the abuses under the regime of Mr. Marcos, for the result was a limitation
of specific powers of the President, particularly those relating to the commander-in-chief
clause, but not a diminution of the general grant of executive power.” (178 SCRA 760 [1989],
at 763-764)

88 RENE B. GOROSPE
the Supreme Court itself has also spoken of its own residual power,263
as well as the residual power and jurisdiction of lower courts.264 So if
almost everybody else has such residual powers – those unstated-but-
felt powers – should not the very source of sovereign power be similarly
considered to have one of its own – unstated but clearly discernible from
the language and spirit of their covenant with the Government? 265 In
fine, the Constitution must be read and understood to have recognized
263 See Firestone Ceramics, Inc. v. Court of Appeals, 334 SCRA 465 (2000). This
involves two consolidated cases which the Court En Banc accepted for its consideration in
spite of the fact that the Division to which they were originally raffled earlier refused, by
majority vote, to refer to the En Banc. Said the Court En Banc:
“On March 8, 2000, the Third Division voted 4-1 to deny petitioners’ motion
to transfer these cases to the Banc. Thus, on March 14, 2000, the Court deliberated
on the consulta and thereafter, voted 9-5 to accept the cases for the Banc to pass
upon in view of the finding that the cases above entitled are of sufficient importance
to merit its attention. Evidently, the action of the Court under the premises is a
legitimate and valid exercise of its RESIDUAL POWER within the contemplation
of paragraph 9 of the Resolution En Banc of November 18, 1993, which reads: ‘
All other cases as the court en banc by a majority of its actual membership may deem
of sufficient importance to merit its attention.’ (underscoring supplied)” (At 473)
264 See Fernandez v. Court of Appeals, 458 SCRA 454 (2005), at 465.
“The residual jurisdiction of the trial court is available at a stage in which the court
is normally deemed to have lost jurisdiction over the case or the subject matter involved in
the appeal. This stage is reached upon the perfection of the appeals by the parties or upon
the approval of the records on appeal, but prior to the transmittal of the original records
or the records on appeal. Considering that no appeal was perfected in this case and the
records of the case have not yet been transmitted to the Court of Appeals, the case has not
as yet attained the residual jurisdiction stage so as to say that the trial court already lost
the jurisdiction it first acquired and that it is left with only its residual powers.”
265 “[T]he Constitution is a covenant that grants and guarantees both the political
and economic rights of the people.” (Tatad v. Secretary of the Department of Energy, 281 SCRA
330 [1997], at 370)
“The Constitution is a sacred social compact, forged between the government and
the people, between each individual and the rest of the citizenry. Through it, the people
have solemnly expressed their will that all of them shall be governed by laws, and their
rights limited by agreed-upon covenants to promote the common good. If we are to uphold
the Rule of Law and reject the rule of the mob, we must faithfully abide by the processes
the Constitution has ordained in order to bring about a peaceful, just and humane
society. Assuming arguendo that six million people allegedly gave their assent to the
proposed changes in the Constitution, they are nevertheless still bound by the social
covenant – the present Constitution – which was ratified by a far greater majority almost
twenty years ago. I do not denigrate the majesty of the sovereign will; rather, I elevate our
society to the loftiest perch, because our government must remain as one of laws and
not of men.” (Separate concurring opinion of Chief Justice Panganiban in Lambino v. Com-
mission on Elections, G.R. Nos. 174153 and 174299, 25 October 2006, at 25-26)

LOCUS STANDI 89
the residual power that the people retained and which resides in them,
and which power they may invoke every now and then. This residual
power accords them standing to raise and question the validity or
constitutionality of certain laws, acts or other matters that affect them
even if under traditional rules they might not have met the requisite
amount of exacting interest that would warrant their participation. As
the principal, the people have the right to an accounting by their agents
or whoever else are entrusted with the direct exercise of governmental
power. In fine, the body politic is entitled to have the courts give life and
meaning to the words in the Constitution which, if not animated, would
remain to be but inert expressions of worthless longings and musings.
It would indeed be rather strange for the Court to see the words
but refuse to hear them for what they say and mean, or, worse, for the
Court to insist and continue mouthing what it has been saying before
the advent of the new language, much like what the Court said in People
v. Ting Lan Uy. In seeking to justify its adherence to a less latitudi-
narian approach to the provisions of the 1987 Constitution on the rights
of suspects, it rationalized:
[W]hile indeed Galman taken together with the 1986 deliberations
on what was later to become Section 12 (1) of the 1987 Constitution
may lead to the conclusion that the rights are available when the
person is already in custody as a suspect, or if the person is a suspect
even if he is not yet deprived in any significant way of his liberty,
Fr. Bernas qualified this statement by saying that “[J]urisprudence
under the 1987 Constitution, however, has consistently held,
following Escobedo, the stricter view, that the rights begin to be
available only when the person is already in custody.266
This is quite odd. While the Court conceded that indeed the intent of
those who drafted the Fundamental Law was towards a more expansive
coverage of the guarantee yet it relied on what Fr. Bernas observed as
sort of a justification to continue with its constricted view of the provi-
sion. What the noted constitutionalist did, however, was merely to tell
the Court what it had been doing all along in spite of the language
and background behind the adoption of the first paragraph of Article
III, Section 12.267
266 475 SCRA 248 (2005), at 264-265.

267 “Any person under investigation for the commission of an offense shall have the
right to be informed of his right to remain silent and to have competent and independent

90 RENE B. GOROSPE
On the effect of a relaxation of the rule on standing, it may indeed

happen that liberalizing the concept of locus standi may bring about
certain hardships on the courts, but then that is not enough reason for
them not to give meaning and life to the spirit embodied in the Consti-
tution. “Courts are bound to suppose that any inconveniences involved
in the application of constitutional provisions according to their plain
terms and import have been considered in advance and accepted as less
intolerable than those avoided, or as compensated by countervailing
advantages.”268 Moreover, applying by analogy what the Court has said in
relation to expediency and speed, the same may also be adopted for the
matter on locus standi. “[T]he Constitution recognizes higher values
than administrative economy, efficiency and efficacy. The Bill of Rights, in
general, and the Due Process Clause in particular, were designed to protect
the fragile values of a vulnerable citizenry from the overbearing concern
for efficiency and efficacy that may characterize praiseworthy government
officials.”269 The convenience of the courts should take a backseat to the
constitutional intent to accord the citizenry greater access to the judicial
arm of the State.
Related to the foregoing is what Justice Douglas of the American
Supreme Court said in response to concerns about liberalizing the rule
on standing: “There need be no inundation of the federal courts if tax-
payers’ suits are allowed. There is a wise judicial discretion that usually
can distinguish between the frivolous question and the substantial question,
between cases ripe for decision and cases that need prior administrative
processing, and the like.”270 In the same way that the Court has brushed
aside questions of impropriety in having to decide a case involving its
own Chief Justice – “[t]he exercise of judicial restraint over justiciable
issues is not an option before this Court” and that “[e]ven in cases where
it is an interested party, the Court under our system of government
cannot inhibit itself and must rule upon the challenge because no other
counsel preferably of his own choice. If the person cannot afford the services of counsel, he
must be provided with one. These rights cannot be waived except in writing and in the
presence of counsel.”
268 Justice Vitug, separate (dissenting) opinion in Ang Bagong Bayani-OFW Labor
Party v. Commission on Elections, 359 SCRA 698 (2001), at 740.
269 National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms (NASECORE) v. Energy
Regulatory Board, 499 SCRA 103 (2006), at 125.
270 Concurring Opinion in Flast v. Cohen, 392 U.S. 83 (1968), at 112.

LOCUS STANDI 91
office has the authority to do so”271 – to that extent must be the reassur-
ance and confidence that the Court will be able to discharge its additional
and expanded responsibility within the context of a constitutional duty
that it cannot and must not shirk from.
And, to the extent that a liberalized approach to locus standi may
impose an additional duty on the part of the courts, again, this would
hardly present any valid argument against its crystallization in practice.
The expanded judicial power already did that, and adding this aspect on
standing would just be part of the whole constitutional design and fabric.
It is just one of the features and impositions of the solemn and sacred
task entrusted to the courts. As the Court said in Pimentel, Jr. v. Aguirre,
“when an act of the President, who in our constitutional scheme is a coequal
of Congress, is seriously alleged to have infringed the Constitution and
the laws, as in the present case, settling the dispute becomes the duty and
the responsibility of the courts.”272 Then, this would also have to be consi-
dered along the pronouncement of the Court that “even a singular
violation of the Constitution and/or the law is enough to awaken judicial
duty.”273 If that really be the case, then the least the courts could do –
when a supplicant approaches bearing a constitutional plaint for it to
redress or simply to look into – is to find a way to give him relief, which
in effect is actually giving him that which he asks for himself and the
others that he represents. Equally relevant is what the Court said else-
where that where a citizen’s petition is anchored on the right of the people
to be represented in court by the public officer duly authorized by law,
“there need be no proof adduced that the petitioner has a personal interest
in the case. xxx The requirement of personal interest is satisfied by the
271 Francisco v. House of Representatives, 415 SCRA 44 (2003), at 158.

272 Pimentel, Jr. v. Aguirre, 336 SCRA 201 (2000), at 223.
273 John Hay Peoples Alternative Coalition v. Lim, 414 SCRA 356 (2003), at 372.
In Pimentel, Jr. v. Aguirre, 336 SCRA 201 (2000), at 222, the Court said: “[W]hen
an act of the legislative department is seriously alleged to have infringed the Constitution,
settling the controversy becomes the duty of this Court. By the mere enactment of the
questioned law or the approval of the challenged action, the dispute is said to have ripened
into a judicial controversy even without any other overt act. Indeed, even a singular violation
of the Constitution and/or the law is enough to awaken judicial duty.”
And, in Guingona, Jr. v. Gonzales, 219 SCRA 326 (1993), at 337, we find this line:
“Once a controversy as to the application or interpretation of a constitutional provision is
raised before this Court, it becomes a legal issue which the Court is bound by Constitutional
mandate to decide.”

92 RENE B. GOROSPE
mere fact that the petitioner is a citizen and hence, part of the public
which possesses the right.”274
With regard to concerns about the possible effect that a liberalized
approach to locus standi may bring to the traditional concepts of separa-
tion of powers, tilting somewhat the scales in favor of an unelected
judiciary,275 this should be deemed as part of the necessary experimenta-
tion that the Philippines chose to undertake given its experience with
the old style of balancing the different branches. That experience taught
the people that it did not work or live up to their expectations. If they
opted to adjust the scales somehow, there is the possibility that it might
work better. If not, they could always recalibrate their standards.
Moreover, giving to the people greater access to the courts would
also be in keeping with the liberal spirit borne out of the liberating revo-
lution through direct action of the people themselves. Coming out from
what they saw as a repressive regime, what better way to institutionalize
their reawakened vigilance and love for freedom and liberty than by
giving them a more latitudinarian access to the courts? Was it not the same
Court which came up with this pronouncement? “[W]hen the proceeding
involves the assertion of a public right, the mere fact that he is a citizen
satisfies the requirement of personal interest.” 276 Justice Douglas of the
U.S. Supreme Court said of what may be minimal interest of individuals
in an issue but one with great constitutional dimensions: “Taxpayers can
be vigilant private attorneys general. Their stake in the outcome of
litigation may be de minimis by financial standards, yet very great when
measured by a particular constitutional mandate.”277 The same might as
well remind one of the very first words spoken on the moon – “That’s one
small step for a man, a giant leap for mankind.”278
274 Gonzales v. Chavez, 205 SCRA 816 (1992), at 847.

275“It seems to me inescapable that allowing unrestricted taxpayer or citizen
standing would significantly alter the allocation of power at the national level, with a shift away
from a democratic form of government.... We should be ever mindful of the contradictions
that would arise if a democracy were to permit general oversight of the elected branches
of government by a nonrepresentative, and in large measure insulated, judicial branch.”
(Justice Powell, concurring in United States v. Richardson, 418 U.S. 166 [1974], at 188)
276 Francisco, Jr. v. House of Representatiives, 415 SCRA 44 (2003), at 136, and
reiterated in Senate of the Philippines v. Ermita, 488 SCRA 1 (2006), at 39.
277 Separate opinion in Flast v. Cohen, 392 U.S. 83 (1968), at 109.
278Statement of Neil Armstrong upon stepping on the moon on 20 July 1969. (See
http://edition.cnn.com/2001/TECH/space/07/20/moonwalk.anniversary/index.html,

LOCUS STANDI 93
In any event, it must also be underscored that constitutionalism is

a constant experimentation with what may best advance the public weal,
promote the general welfare and serve the best interests of the citizens.
In the same manner that the best interests of society may be better
served by allowing free play and competition in the marketplace of
ideas, allowing for greater availability of the courts to the people for
the ventilation of their public plaints may better serve the public needs.
But when men have realized that time has upset many fighting
faiths, they may come to believe even more than they believe the
very foundations of their own conduct that the ultimate good desired
is better reached by free trade in ideas – that the best test of truth
is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition
of the market, and that truth is the only ground upon which their
wishes safely can be carried out. That, at any rate, is the theory of
our Constitution. It is an experiment, as all life is an experiment.
Every year, if not every day, we have to wager our salvation upon
some prophecy based upon imperfect knowledge. While that
experiment is part of our system, I think that we should be eternally
vigilant against attempts to check the expression of opinions that
we loathe and believe to be fraught with death, unless they so
imminently threaten immediate interference with the lawful and
pressing purposes of the law that an immediate check is required
to save the country.279
This matter of expanding access of the citizens to the courts is

also consistent with the court’s educative role in a society governed under
a Rule of Law, namely, a symbolic function of formulating authoritative
guidelines and binding precepts for the proper advisement of everyone,
most specially those temporarily vested with – or possessed by – power.280
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/324100.html, and http://www.time.com/time/magazine/

article/0,9171,901102,00.html?internalid=AE, all visited on 20 December 2006)
279 Justice Holmes, dissenting in Abrams v. United States, 250 U.S. 616 (1919), at 630.
280 “The setting aside or declaring void, in proper cases, of intrusions of State
authority into areas reserved by the Bill of Rights for the individual as constitutionally
protected spheres where even the awesome powers of Government may not enter at will
is not the totality of the Court’s functions.
“The Court also has the duty to formulate guiding and controlling constitutional
principles, precepts, doctrines, or rules. It has the symbolic function of educating the bench
and bar on the extent of protection given by constitutional guarantees.” (Salonga v. Paño,
134 SCRA 438 [1985], at 463)
“[T]he Court has the duty to formulate guiding and controlling constitutional pre-
cepts, doctrines or rules. It has the symbolic function of educating the bench and the bar,

94 RENE B. GOROSPE
Indeed, the Court has acknowledged that by virtue of the second para-
graph of Section 1, Article VIII of the Constitution the Court has a “special
function” of vindicating constitutional rights. 281 Moreover, the Supreme
Court has claimed that it, “as the third great department of government
vested with the judicial power and as the guardian of the Constitution,
cannot be deprived of its certiorari jurisdiction to pass upon and deter-
mine alleged violations of the citizens’ constitutional and legal rights
under the Rule of Law.”282
On the importance of the courts in the proper functioning of
the government under a system of laws and not of men, the present
Chief Justice observed:
Every officer under a constitutional government mut act according
to law and subject to the controlling power of the people, acting
through the courts, as well as through the executive and legislative.
One department is just as representative of the other, and the
judiciary is the department which is charged with the special duty
of determining the limitations which the law places upon all official
action. This historic role of the Court is the foundation stone of
a government of laws and not of men.283
If this really be true, then the courts must live up to the high esteem the
people have in such institutions’ ability to pronounce authoritatively the
limits which the law places upon all official action.
Along the lines of the people-empowering spirit that suffuses the
1987 Charter, it could also be said that it is one that is more solicitous
about the welfare of the people, not only in their political interests but
also in their more mundane, day-to-day concerns.
Lest it is missed, the Constitution is a covenant that grants and
guarantees both the political and economic rights of the people.
The Constitution mandates this Court to be the guardian not only
of the people’s political rights but their economic rights as well.
The protection of the economic rights of the poor and the powerless
and in the present petitions, the military and the police, on the extent of the protection
given by constitutional guarantees.” (David v. Macapagal-Arroyo, 489 SCRA 160 [2006], at 215)
281 Tolentino v. Secretary of Finance, 235 SCRA 630 (1994), at 686.
282 Presidential Commission on Good Government v. Peña, 159 SCRA 556 (1988),
at 566.
283
Separate opinion in Integrated Bar of the Philippines v. Zamora, 338 SCRA 81
(2000), at 136.

LOCUS STANDI 95
is of greater importance to them for they are concerned more with

the exoterics of living and less with the esoterics of liberty. Hence,
for as long as the Constitution reigns supreme so long will this
Court be vigilant in upholding the economic rights of our people
especially from the onslaught of the powerful. Our defense of the
people’s economic rights may appear heartless because it cannot be
half-hearted.284
The foregoing reminds one of what the U.S. Supreme Court said about
economic concerns of the people which provided additional justification
to extending the protective mantle of freedom of speech to commercial
speech – “the particular consumer’s interest in the free flow of commercial
information ... may be as keen, if not keener by far, than his interest in the
day’s most urgent political debate.”285
And, talking about “exoterics of living” vis-a-vis “esoterics of liberty,”
the courts may as well remember to be guided by what the Supreme Court
said in Frivaldo v. Commission on Elections. While it was about elections,
it should apply, mutatis mutandis, with greater force when one speaks
of the people’s exercise of their inherent and retained sovereign rights:
At balance, the question really boils down to a choice of philo-
sophy and perception of how to interpret and apply laws relating
to elections: literal or liberal; the letter or the spirit; the naked
provision or its ultimate purpose; legal syllogism or substantial
justice; in isolation or in the context of social conditions; harshly
against or gently in favor of the voters’ obvious choice. In applying
election laws, it would be far better to err in favor of popular
sovereignty than to be right in complex but little understood lega-
lisms. Indeed, to inflict a thrice rejected candidate upon the electorate
of Sorsogon would constitute unmitigated judicial tyranny and an
unacceptable assault upon this Court’s conscience.286
The Court further added that “the real essence of justice does not emanate
from quibblings over patchwork legal technicality. It proceeds from the
284 Tatad v. Secretary of the Department of Energy, 281 SCRA 330 (1997), at 370.
285 Virginia Pharmacy Board v. Virginia Citizens Consumer Council, 425 U.S. 748
(1976), at 763.
286 257 SCRA 727 (1996), at 769. This passage was also cited in subsequent cases,
like Pangandaman v. Commission on Elections, 319 SCRA 283 (1999), at 303; Maruhom v.
Commission on Elections, 331 SCRA 473 (2000), at 494-495; and, Malabaguio v. Commission
on Elections, 346 SCRA 699 (2000), at 712-713.

96 RENE B. GOROSPE
spirit’s gut consciousness of the dynamic role of law as a brick in the

ultimate development of the social edifice.”287
Under a new approach to the issue of locus standi, it might be time
for a reversal of the rule – from requiring the petitioner to prove his
standing to requiring the respondent to show why the petitioner does not
have the requisite standing. And in this regard, the following passage
is quite relevant, even as it may deal with some other novel feature of the
1987 Charter:
To a great degree, the 1987 Constitution has narrowed the reach
of the political question doctrine .... Heretofore, the judiciary has
focused on the “thou shalt not’s” of the Constitution directed against
the exercise of its jurisdiction. With the new provision, however,
courts are given a greater prerogative to determine what it can do
to prevent grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of
jurisdiction on the part of any branch or instrumentality of govern-
ment. Clearly, the new provision did not just grant the Court power
of doing nothing. In sync and symmetry with this intent are other
provisions of the 1987 Constitution trimming the so called political
thicket.288
In the same way that the expanded judicial power may have reversed
the rules on what the courts cannot to what it can and must do, to that
extent must the rule be reversed also in regard to the rule on locus standi.
The Constitution was born out of a revolution that manifested the
people’s rejection of the traditional way by which they may have been
treated, ignored or simply taken for granted. It was a Charter that was
forged in a spirit of greater people empowerment and diminished trust
reposed upon those in power. It was a covenant with a people desirous
and intent on retaining more of the powers inherent in them even as
they still left most of the affairs of government within its traditional
structural framework – including the availment of the court processes as
a manner of redressing grievances.
Further, the Court’s frequent invocation of the “paramount or trans-
cendental importance” exception, seen in relation to a liberalized approach
to locus standi, may also mean that such question of appropriateness of
party should take a backseat. Instead, the proper focus should now be on
287 Id., at 772.

288 Estrada v. Desierto, 353 SCRA 452 (2001), at 491.

LOCUS STANDI 97
the issue – the song – and not petitioner, or the singer. It is the message
that should matter, not the messenger.
Moreover, one drawback to using an exception based on the para-
mount importance or transcendental significance of the issue presented
is that the same is quite relative – it depends on the courts’ appreciation at
the particular moment. This is best illustrated by the two Kilosbayan
cases – about gambling – which were decided in a span of barely more
than a year yet the Court had radically different view about giving locus
standi to the same set of petitioners. In Kilosbayan, Incorporated v.
Guingona, decided on 5 May 1994, the Court said:
We find the instant petition to be of transcendental importance to
the public. The issues it raised are of paramount public interest and
of a category even higher than those involved in many of the afore-
cited cases. The ramifications of such issues immeasurably affect the
social, economic, and moral well-being of the people.... The legal
standing then of the petitioners deserves recognition and, in the
exercise of its sound discretion, this Court hereby brushes aside the
procedural barrier which the respondents tried to take advantage of.289
On 17 July 1995, the Court came up with the sequel – Kilosbayan,

Incorporated v. Morato. This time, the standing that was seen a year before
altogether vanished, the Court explaining it away thus:
The question whether the petitioners have standing to question
the Equipment Lease Agreement or ELA is a legal question. As
will presently be shown, the ELA, which the petitioners seek to
declare invalid in this proceeding, is essentially different from the
1993 Contract of lease entered into by the PCSO with the PGMC.
Hence the determination in the prior case (G.R. No. 113375) that
the petitioner had standing to challenge the validity of the 1993
Contract of Lease of the parties does not preclude determination of
their standing in the present suit.
Not only is petitioners’ standing a legal issue that may be deter-
mined again in this case. It is, strictly speaking, not even the issue
in this case, since standing is a concept in constitutional law and here
no constitutional question is actually involved. The issue in this case
is whether petitioners are the “real parties in interest” within the
meaning of Rule 3, §2 of the Rules of Court ....290
289 232 SCRA 110 (1994), at 139.

290 246 SCRA 540 (1995), at 562.

98 RENE B. GOROSPE
And, in regard to the relativity of values and of the nuances of apprecia-

tion, we find this noteworthy observation of Justice Feliciano in his con-
curring opinion in Kilosbayan, Incorporated v. Guingona, Jr.,
[I]t is not enough for the Court simply to invoke “public interest”
or even “paramount considerations of national interest,” and to say
that the specific requirements of such public interest can only be
ascertained on a “case to case” basis. For one thing, such an approach
is not intellectually satisfying. For another, such an answer appears
to come too close to saying that locus standi exists whenever at least
a majority of the Members of this Court participating in a case feel
that an appropriate case for judicial intervention has arisen. 291
In this regard, certain issues may not merit the attention and the
degree of importance for the moment but then would have far-ranging
repercussions in the future if not nipped at the bud, so to speak. As Justice
Bradley, writing for the Court, in Boyd v. United States admonished more
than a hundred years ago:
It may be that it is the obnoxious thing in its mildest and least
repulsive form; but illegitimate and unconstitutional practices get
their first footing in that way, namely, by silent approaches and slight
deviations from legal modes of procedure. This can only be obviated
by adhering to the rule that constitutional provisions for the security
of person and property should be liberally construed. A close and
literal construction deprives them of half their efficacy, and leads to
gradual depreciation of the right, as if it consisted more in sound
than in substance. It is the duty of courts to be watchful for the consti-
tutional rights of the citizen, and against any stealthy encroachments
thereon.292
In the words of another American Supreme Court Justice, “it nearly is

always by insidious approaches that the citadels of liberty are most
successfully attacked.”293 Along this line is what the Philippine Supreme
Court itself said in Ynot v. Intermediate Appellate Court:
The strength of democracy lies not in the rights it guarantees but
in the courage of the people to invoke them whenever they are ignored
or violated. Rights are but weapons on the wall if, like expensive
291 232 SCRA 110 (1994), at 154.

292 116 U.S. 616 (1886), at 635.
293 Justice Black, dissenting in Board of Education v. Allen, 392 U.S. 236 (1968),
at 251-252.

LOCUS STANDI 99
tapestry, all they do is embellish and impress. Rights, as weapons,

must be a promise of protection. They become truly meaningful, and
fulfill the role assigned to them in the free society, if they are kept
bright and sharp with use by those who are not afraid to assert
them.294
In Allado v. Diokno, the Court also spoke of vigilance in protecting rights,

which could never be too early:
Perhaps, this case would not have reached this Court if peti-
tioners were ordinary people submissive to the dictates of govern-
ment. They would have been illegally arrested and detained without
bail. Then we would not have the opportunity to rectify the injustice.
Fortunately, the victims of injustice are lawyers who are vigilant of
their rights, who fight for their liberty and freedom not otherwise
available to those who cower in fear and subjection.295
There is thus the constant possibility that, depending on the courts’

appreciation of issues and the timing, a case may be considered important
enough or not depending on the manner 296 and the forcefulness or
cogency of the presentation of such issue,297 or the same being affected
by the personality or the standing and status of the party in society –
factors which may attract the attention of the courts to consider the
matter as worth their time. But then this may only lead to further problems
in the future which could have been obviated by a timely judicial scrutiny.
Under a relaxed and liberalized approach to standing, whenever
a case is filed one may no longer encounter at the initial turn the issue
of locus standi. As the present Chief Justice observed in Ople v. Torres,
“[a]s is usual in constitutional litigation, respondents raise the threshold
issues relating to the standing to sue of the petitioner and the justiciability
294 148 SCRA 659 (1987), at 675.

295 232 SCRA 192 (1994), at 210.
296 In his dissenting opinion in Gitlow v. New York, 268 U.S. 652 (1923), at 673,
Justice Holmes said: “Eloquence may set fire to reason.”
297 In Gumabon v. Director of Prisons, 37 SCRA 420 (1971), at 422, the Court after
noting the concern that a prior case it had decided involving the same issue may stand in the
way of resolving it differently, said: “The fear that the Pomeroy ruling stands as an obstacle
to their release on a habeas corpus proceeding prompted petitioners, as had been mentioned,
to ask that it be appraised anew and, if necessary, discarded. We can resolve the present
petition without doing so. The plea there made was unconvincing, there being a failure to
invoke the contentions now pressed vigorously by their counsel, Attorney Jose W. Diokno, ...”

100 RENE B. GOROSPE
of the case at bar. More specifically, respondents aver that petitioner has
no legal interest to uphold and that the implementing rules of A.O. No.
308 have yet to be promulgated.”298 Instead, we may have more of what
the Court said in Tañada v. Angara:299
During its deliberations on the case, the Court noted that
the respondents did not question the locus standi of petitioners.
Hence, they are also deemed to have waived the benefit of such
issue. They probably realized that grave constitutional issues,
expenditures of public funds and serious international commitments
of the nation are involved here, and that transcendental public
interest requires that the substantive issues be met head on and
decided on the merits, rather than skirted or deflected by procedural
matters.
Accordingly, locus standi should not be a matter of judicial dis-

cretion, liberality or tolerance but one of constitutional command. It is
about time that we proceeded from a premise that there is now a new
framework, a new paradigm and philosophical matrix relative to certain
issues of public concern and the parties who may be authorized to bring
them up for judicial scrutiny.
Further in this regard, members of the Court have also spoken in the
past of a liberalized approach to the rule on locus standi. Then Justice
(later, Chief Justice) Davide, Jr., referred to an “abandoned restrictive
application of locus standi”300 while the present Chief Justice once wrote
that the complexion of the rule on locus standi has been undergoing a
change, citing the observation that there is a continuing relaxation of the
rule on standing, after which he said: “I am perfectly at peace with the
drift of our decisions liberalizing the rule on locus standi.”301
In relation to that aspect about the proscription against the bring-
ing up by citizens of generalized grievances, the same should now likewise
be liberalized for the Constitution itself, by giving the people a greater
handle on the affairs of their government, should be deemed to have
relaxed the rule in that regard. Each citizen, under the new constitutional
scheme, is deemed as concerned about his or her brothers and sisters,
298 293 SCRA 141 (1998), at 147.

299 272 SCRA 18 (1997), at 46.
301 Kilosbayan, Incorporated v. Guingona, Jr., 232 SCRA 110 (1994), at 169.

LOCUS STANDI 101
neighbors and fellow citizens. What the latter cannot bring to court
by themselves for appropriate relief should not be lost simply because
they themselves do not do it. For as long as the former can adequately
articulate before the courts their fellow citizens’ concern then that
should suffice. The courts, under the new Charter, might as well be
deemed to have been mandated to take a more proactive role in the
affairs of the State and not simply take the traditional laid-back position,
hesitant to get involved in political questions and other matters of policy
even as these may already be affecting the whole citizenry. This is in
keeping with what the Court said long ago that “[i]n the last and
ultimate analysis, then, must the success of our government in the
unfolding years to come be tested in the crucible of Filipino minds and
hearts than in consultation rooms and court chambers.”302
The rule on locus standi could be likened to a door which if not
opened wide enough would hardly enable anyone to enter.303 But then
it is their government so why should the people have a difficult time
entering and looking inside?
Moreover, in the same way that a facial challenge304 may be allowed
in free speech cases in view of the importance of that freedom in society,
then by reason of the greater recognition of the people’s right to parti-
302 Angara v. Electoral Commission, 63 Phil. 139 (1936), at 159.

303 It has been observed in relation to the constrictive use of locus standi in
another jurisdiction:
“The Irish judiciary and legislature act as the doorkeepers to the law by
controlling the entry and indeed the fate of the citizen from the remedies and
protection of the courts. The Irish judiciary swear an oath to uphold the Constitu-
tion ‘…without fear or favour, affection or ill will towards any man…’ The courts
also agree to the best of their skill and capacity ‘…to vindicate the rights of all
citizens’ and ‘…to hold all citizens equal before the law.’ Yet for many, access to
the courts is rendered a difficult option to contemplate. The first major barrier,
which any allegedly aggrieved party encounters, is that of locus standi.” (Barry
Sullivan, “A Liberal Approach to the Issue of Locus Standi and the Contrasting
Interpretation of Entitlements to Civil Legal Aid,” http://www.nuigalway.ie/law/
GSLR/2003/Locus%20Standi.pdf, visited 24 December 2006)
304 “A facial challenge is allowed to be made to a vague statute and to one which
is overbroad because of possible ‘chilling effect’ upon protected speech. The theory is that
‘[w]hen statutes regulate or proscribe speech and no readily apparent construction suggests
itself as a vehicle for rehabilitating the statutes in a single prosecution, the transcendent
value to all society of constitutionally protected expression is deemed to justify allowing
attacks on overly broad statutes with no requirement that the person making the attack

102 RENE B. GOROSPE
cipate in the affairs of their government granted by the Constitution, their

access to the courts should also be relaxed and liberalized. Like in a facial
challenge, the people bringing up the suit which concerns everyone need
not be the one directly injured. Society may not be able to wait for that
person to personally bring up the matter. If a particular issue is every-
one’s concern, as it may affect him or her sooner or later, then anyone
who is not yet personally or directly injured should already be recognized
as with the requisite standing to raise it up. An ounce of prevention might
really be worth much more than a pound of cure later on.
Finally, if under American case law “Congress may by statute elimi-
nate prudential standing concerns, leaving only constitutional standing
requirements to satisfy,” 305 then with more reason that the standing
requirements in the Philippines should be deemed substantially, if not
radically, affected by the design and philosophy underlying the people
power provisions of the 1987 Charter.306 After all that has been written
in the Constitution, could it be reasonably assumed that the words did
not really mean much 307 – that they are actually empty or vacuous
demonstrate that his own conduct could not be regulated by a statute drawn with narrow
specificity.’ The possible harm to society in permitting some unprotected speech to go
unpunished is outweighed by the possibility that the protected speech of others may be
deterred and perceived grievances left to fester because of possible inhibitory effects of
overly broad statutes.” (Estrada v. Sandiganbayan, 369 SCRA 394 [2001], at 441, adopting
Justice Mendoza’s observations in his concurring opinion, 369 SCRA, at 464-465; Emphasis
supplied.)
305 Tribe, American Constitutional Law. Vol. I (3rd ed. [2000]), at 387.
306 “Other legal systems have dramatically different approaches to standing. For
example, under §39 of the South African Constitution, standing is extended to “(c) anyone
acting as a member of, or in the interest of, a group or class of persons; (d) anyone acting
in the public interest.” Chapter 2, §38(c)-(d).” (Tribe, op. cit., n. 6, 386)
“Equality, as an underlying theme of the South African constitution, has led to the
inclusion of specific provisions as to whom may take an action when an infringement of,
or threat to, fundamental rights occurs. In South Africa, relief may be sought by:
1) A person acting in his or her own interest
2) An association acting in the interest of its members
3) A person acting on behalf of another person who is not in a position to seek
such relief in his or her own name
4) A person acting as a member of or in the interest of a group or class of
persons, or
5) A person acting in the public interest.” (Barry Sullivan, op. cit.)
307 In Demafiles v. Commission on Elections, 21 SCRA 1462 (1967), at 1465, there is
a line from a children’s book which offers much relief when words are devoid of meaning:
“‘If there is no meaning in it,’ said the King in Alice in Wonderland, ‘that saves a world of

LOCUS STANDI 103
gestures, like a munificent bequest in a pauper’s will? 308 If in instances

where the words might have remained the same the courts found a
different way of looking at their meaning, such as in coming up with the
Miranda rights for suspects309 (from the guarantee of privilege against
self-incrimination and right to counsel), then extending it to mean that
no waiver of such rights may be had unless with the assistance of a
lawyer, 310 in including commercial speech within the ambit of the
guarantee of freedom of speech,311 and in adjusting the guarantee against
unreasonable searches and seizures from physical to constructive searches
where no actual physical entry is made,312 then how much more should
a new reading not be had when the language has clearly changed?
Shadows Past and Present Lights
Now, more than ever, is there need to show recognition and reali-
zation of the libertarian and people-empowering provisions of the Consti-
tution, not by mechanically singing paeans to its hymn but by actually
hearing its melody flowing through everyday cases, not by erecting
monuments to its letter but by vivifying the essence of its being, not in
paying lip service to its sound but in according reality to its spirit.
The people are expected to resort to the courts to settle and resolve,
in a civilized manner, problems and issues they may have with the
government. Should they be turned away by the traditional notions of
trouble, you know, as we needn’t try to find any.’” But, of course, the Constitution is a world
away from being a children’s fairy tale literature.
308 In De la Camara v. Enage, 41 SCRA 1 (1971), at 9-10, the Court said, in reference
to granting the right to bail but practically negating it by imposing an excessive one: “It
does call to mind these words of Justice Jackson, ‘a promise to the ear to be broken to the
hope, a teasing illusion like a munificent bequest in a pauper’s will.’” (The reference is to
Justice Jackson’s concurring opinion in Edwards v. California, 314 U.S. 160 [1941], at 186,
where he wrote: “Unless this Court is willing to say that citizenship of the United States
means at least this much to the citizen, then our heritage of constitutional privileges and
immunities is only a promise to the ear to be broken to the hope, a teasing illusion like a
munificent bequest in a pauper’s will.”)
309 384 U.S. 436 (1966).
310 Morales v. Enrile, 121 SCRA 538 (1983) and People v. Galit, 135 SCRA 465 (1985).
311 Virginia Pharmacy Board v. Virginia Citizens Consumer Council, 425 U.S. 748
(1976). See also Ohralik v. Ohio State Bar Association, 436 U.S. 447 (1978).
312 See Katz v. United States, 389 US 347 (1967), and Kyllo v. United States, 533 U.S.
27 (2001).

104 RENE B. GOROSPE
standing in spite of the clearly changed legal and political landscape?

Turning them away would only lead to their taking their plaints into
their own way of resolving disputes. Where the Rule of Law denies the
people the justice they seek, that could open the floodgates to their
making their own law.
Under the new constitutional scheme, citizens should be deemed
directly injured or substantially affected and involved in matters that
affect them as citizens. It is a Charter that is supposed to afford greater
sensitivity to citizen’s plaints. And each one is deemed a keeper of his
brother. As the song goes, “his welfare is my concern... He ain’t heavy,
he’s my brother.”313
In the final analysis, as what Justice Kapunan said: “In a sense,
all citizen’s and taxpayer’s suits are efforts to air generalized grievances
about the conduct of government and the allocation of power.”314 More-
over, if “even a singular violation of the Constitution and/or the law is
enough to awaken judicial duty,”315 why should it matter that much that
the issue was brought to the attention of the courts by one who was not
directly injured but who is just as desirous of preventing more injury to
himself, or his fellow citizens, from same such violation?316 If, through
313 “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother,” by Robert Scott and Sidney Russell
The song also has the following stanza:
If I’m laden at all
I’m laden with sadness
That everyone’s heart
Isn’t filled with the gladness
Of love for one another.
314
Separate opinion in Cruz v. Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources,
347 SCRA 128 (2000), at 257.
315 Guingona, Jr. v. Gonzales, 219 SCRA 326 (1993), at 337.
316 In Stonehill v. Diokno, 20 SCRA 383 (1967), where the Court, speaking through
Chief Justice Concepcion, adopted the exclusionary rule, Justice Castro dissented from the
Court’s act of refraining from expressly applying said rule to papers and documents which
were not found in the residences of the petitioners, leaving “the matter open for determi-
nation in appropriate cases in the future.” This was predicated on the petitioners’ alleged
lack of standing to invoke said exclusionary rule. Justice Castro argued:
“I do not share [the Chief Justice’s] reluctance or unwillingness to expressly
declare, at this time, the nullity of the search warrants served at places other than
the three residences, and the illegality of the searches and seizures conducted
under the authority thereof. In my view even the exacerbating passions and pre-

LOCUS STANDI 105
the so-called concept of intergenerational responsibility317 children could

have standing to represent those who are yet to see the light of day in
the distant future, why should the adults be deprived of the right to bring
an action that presently concerns them and their fellow living beings?
The Court should develop a cohesive rule or doctrine on locus
standi along the spirit of the people-empowerment provisions of the
1987 Constitution instead of coming up with a patchwork of exceptions
which may achieve what Justice Harlan of the U.S. Supreme Court said
about the changing rules on locus standi – reducing “constitutional
standing to a word game played by secret rules.”318
judices inordinately generated by the environmental political and moral develop-

ments of this case should not deter this Court from forthrightly laying down the
law – not only for this case but as well for future cases and future generations.
All the search warrants, without exception, in this case are admittedly general,
blanket and roving warrants and are therefore admittedly and indisputably out-
lawed by the Constitution; and the searches and seizures made were therefore
unlawful. That the petitioners, let us assume in gratia argumenti, have no legal
standing to ask for the suppression of the papers, things and effects seized
from places other than their residences, to my mind, cannot in any manner
affect, alter or otherwise modify the intrinsic illegality of the search warrants
and the intrinsic illegality of the searches and seizures made thereunder.
Whether or not the petitioners possess legal standing, the said warrants
are void and remain void, and the searches and seizures were illegal and
remain illegal. No inference can be drawn from the words of the Constitution
that ‘legal standing’ or the lack of it is a determinant of the nullity or validity
of a search warrant or of the lawfulness or illegality of a search or seizure.
“On the question of legal standing, I am of the conviction that, upon the
pleadings submitted to this Court, the petitioners have the requisite legal standing
to move for the suppression and return of the documents, papers and effects that
were seized from places other than their family residences.
* * * * *
“The U.S. doctrines and pertinent cases on standing to move for the suppres-
sion or return of documents, papers and effects which are the fruits of an
unlawful search and seizure, may be summarized as follows: (a) ownership of
documents, papers and effects gives ‘standing’; (b) ownership and/or control or
possession – actual or constructive – of premises searched gives ‘standing’; and
(c) the ‘aggrieved person’ doctrine where the search warrant and the sworn
application for search warrant are ‘primarily’ directed solely and exclusively against
the ‘aggrieved person,’ gives ‘standing.’” (At 399-400; Boldface supplied)
317 Oposa v. Factoran, 224 SCRA 792 (1993)
318 Dissenting opinion in Flast v. Cohen, 392 U.S. 83 (1968), at 129.

106 RENE B. GOROSPE
Under a constitutional system that seeks greater accountability,

transparency and responsibility of those in public office, according the
rule on locus standi a more expansive consideration would only be in
the right direction. This new view on standing could be seen as another
aspect, another form, another expression of people enfranchisement.
Relevant to this is what was said about the American standing doctrine:
[T]he proposition that standing law embodies separation-of-power

principles need not produce a particularly restrictive set of standing
rules. To the contrary, under a “public law” view of the judicial
system – Article III judges might be able to fulfill their responsibility
under the separation of powers only by construing standing law
expansively to remedy violations of a wide range of constitutionally
and statutorily guaranteed rights.319
If such could be said under the American constitutional system, how

much more should that be true in a legal regime born out of a liberating
people power revolution, giving birth to a constitution less trusting of
officialdom? It has also been noted that “[t]he current trend of the
common law world has moved from strict traditional approach to a less
restrictive set of rules of standing. This is to allow greater public partici-
pation.... [A]n effective legal system should allow the public access to the
court to have their cases heard. A standing to sue is the fundamental to
the access of justice.”320
In fine, it is the Constitution itself that has vested the citizenry
with locus standi. The least that the courts can do is to pay heed to that
investiture. In any case, these new provisions should refocus the courts
on listening to the song instead of preoccupying themselves with the
singer, with reading the message rather than denigrating or belittling the
messenger. The adjustments and experiment with locus standi has to be
seen not through the lens of American political experience where it
might have worked for people of a different temperament and background
but in the milieu of how the traditional rules failed to meet the people’s
expectations in the Philippines.
319 Tribe, op. cit., at 391.

320 http://www.foi.law.utas.edu.au/active/abstracts/abstracts/1997Tas26AAL.html,
visited 24 December 2006.

LOCUS STANDI 107
In the final analysis, litigation is a safety valve. The people take

their complaints and grievances to the courts for redress and appropriate
relief, especially if they find themselves forgotten or betrayed by their
elected representatives. 321 In case they find no meaningful avenue for
that assistance,322 they may altogether bypass the courts and the govern-
ment and decide to reclaim the reins of power in the only means that may
still be available to them – by waging a revolution.323 It was a revolution
that brought about the 1987 Constitution. That Charter could remain
true to its lineage by giving rise to what may appear as a radical manner
of according a new gloss and substance to the rules on locus standi. But
if the courts will not do it, choosing to rest on the comfort and the
deceptive reassurance of past tradition and habit, then it may take
another revolution to bring about the desired changes – and jolt everyone
out of his or her complacency.
The people have spoken through their Constitution. It is up to the
courts to listen and hear the words and feel the spirit and the context in
which they were solemnly embodied and infused in the fundamental law.
321 “Groups which find themselves unable to achieve their objectives through the
ballot frequently turn to the courts.... And under the conditions of modern government,
litigation may well be the sole practicable avenue open to a minority to petition for
redress of grievances.” (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(NACCP) v. Button, 371 US 415 [1963], at 429-430)
322 “The courts’ role in administering justice is rendered meaningless if those
adversely affected by state behaviour are without recourse. The courts would lack purpose
if interested parties could not challenge purported fundamental breaches of the law.”
(Sullivan, op. cit.)
323 “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that
they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are
Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. – That to secure these rights, Governments
are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,
– That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the
Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its
foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall
seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate
that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes;
and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer,
while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they
are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the
same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right,
it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future
security.” (American Declaration of Independence)

108 RENE B. GOROSPE
Would the courts rather have the message delivered through the ranting
and grating noise of an agitated crowd or conveyed through a melodious
vocalization by a single singer or the harmonious voices of an orchestrated
choir?
It is time to stop living in the shadows of the past. It is time to
come out into the light of a new day, a time to move on. It is about time
the Court stopped merely singing paeans to people power and started
really listening to the people singing.

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ARTICLES

Songs, Singers and Shadows:

Judicial Power and the Separation of Powers

People Empowerment and Locus Standi

I n a civilized world where disputes and other conflicts are supposed

UST LAW REVIEW, Vol. LI, AY 2006-2007

with the government, specially in a society that prides itself on being

3 “The Philippines is a democratic and republican State. Sovereignty resides in

UST LAW REVIEW, Vol. LI, AY 2006-2007

to have been empowered to do, perform and discharge.7 If they disagree

Judicial Power and the Separation of Powers

While resort to the judicial tribunals is generally the rule to resolve

UST LAW REVIEW, Vol. LI, AY 2006-2007

to the exercise of judicial power.8 A person may be injured or hurt but

UST LAW REVIEW, Vol. LI, AY 2006-2007

The Constitution itself provides:

Of significance to these discussions is the exercise by the courts of

UST LAW REVIEW, Vol. LI, AY 2006-2007

and sacred obligation assigned to it by the Constitution to deter-

As to its proper place in the overall design of the governmental

14 63 Phil. 139 (1936), at 158-159.

UST LAW REVIEW, Vol. LI, AY 2006-2007

sustain their validity. In the latter case, there is an affirmation that

As the passage from Angara reveals, the proper exercise of judicial

16 Occena v. Commission on Elections, 104 SCRA 1 (1981), at 7.

UST LAW REVIEW, Vol. LI, AY 2006-2007

constitutional issue; (3) exercise of the judicial review pleaded at the

The Issue of Locus Standi

The second requisite, that of standing or locus standi is of parti-

21 In regard to raising the constitutional issue at the earliest opportunity, it has

UST LAW REVIEW, Vol. LI, AY 2006-2007

is directly affected by and whose interest is immediate and substantial

“‘Legal standing’ or locus standi has been defined as a personal

UST LAW REVIEW, Vol. LI, AY 2006-2007

It is intended ‘to assure a vigorous adversary presentation of the case, and,

UST LAW REVIEW, Vol. LI, AY 2006-2007

“Standing doctrine defines the framework for ‘judicial control of public

34 Tribe, American Constitutional Law. Vol. I (3rd ed. [2000]), at 386.

UST LAW REVIEW, Vol. LI, AY 2006-2007

quality, containing beneath their surface simplicity submerged

It could accordingly be appreciated that the requirement of locus

40 Flast v. Cohen, 392 U.S. 83 (1968), at 94-95.

UST LAW REVIEW, Vol. LI, AY 2006-2007

44 178 SCRA 582 (1989), at 586.

UST LAW REVIEW, Vol. LI, AY 2006-2007

Thus, when Justice Mendoza wrote for the Court in Kilosbayan,

As to the element of injury, such aspect is not something that

49 246 SCRA 540 (1995), at 562.

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The difficulty of determining locus standi arises in public suits.

to rule on these interests [been] analyzed systematically or its limits defined.

UST LAW REVIEW, Vol. LI, AY 2006-2007

validity of an executive or legislative action, he must show that he

Then, it added: “Significantly, recent decisions show a certain toughening

UST LAW REVIEW, Vol. LI, AY 2006-2007