Manila Prince Hotel V GSIS
Manila Prince Hotel V GSIS
Manila Prince Hotel V GSIS
GSIS
GR 122156, 3 February 1997
En banc, Bellosillo (p): 6 concur, others dissent
Issue(s):
Held:
The 1987 Philippine Constitution, Article XII Section 10 provides: “The Congress shall, upon
recommendation of the economic and planning agency, when the national interest dictates, reserve to
citizens of the Philippines or to corporations or associations at least sixty per centum of whose capital
is owned by such citizens, or such higher percentage as Congress may prescribe, certain areas of
investments. The Congress shall enact measures that will encourage the formation and operation of
enterprises whose capital is wholly owned by Filipinos.
In the grant of rights, privileges, and concessions covering the national economy and patrimony, the
State shall give preference to qualified Filipinos.
The State shall regulate and exercise authority over foreign investments within its national jurisdiction
and in accordance with its national goals and priorities.”
A constitution is a system of fundamental laws for the governance and
administration of a nation. It is supreme, imperious, absolute and unalterable
except by the authority from which it emanates. It has been defined as
the fundamental and paramount law of the nation. It prescribes the
permanent framework of a system of government, assigns to the different
departments their respective powers and duties, and establishes certain
fixed principles on which government is founded. The fundamental
conception in other words is that it is a supreme law to which all other laws
must conform and in accordance with which all private rights must be
determined and all public authority administered. Under the doctrine of
constitutional supremacy, if a law or contract violates any norm of the
constitution that law or contract whether promulgated by the legislative or
by the executive branch or entered into by private persons for private
purposes is null and void and without any force and effect. Thus, since the
Constitution is the fundamental, paramount and supreme law of the nation,
it is deemed written in every statute and contract.
In fine, Section 10, second paragraph, Art. XII of the 1987 Constitution
is a mandatory, positive command which is complete in itself and
which needs no further guidelines or implementing laws or rules for its
enforcement. From its very words the provision does not require any
legislation to put it in operation.
The Supreme Court directed the GSIS, the Manila Hotel Corporation, the
Committee on Privatization and the Office of the Government Corporate
Counsel to cease and desist from selling 51% of the Share of the MHC to
Renong Berhad, and to accept the matching bid of Manila Prince Hotel at P44
per shere and thereafter execute the necessary agreements and document
to effect the sale, to issue the necessary clearances and to do such other
acts and deeds as may be necessary for the purpose.