Torralba v. Municipality of Sibagat, G.R. No. L-59180, January 29, 1987

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Summary: As residents and taxpayers of Butuan City, Clementino Torralba and co. assailed the constitutionality of BP 56 as it violates Sec 3 Art XI of the 1973 Constitution. They contend that LGC (Local Government Code) must first be enacted before the Congress can create the new Municipality of Sibagat. SC, however, ruled otherwise, saying that the Sec 3 Art XI dos not proscribe nor prohibit the modifications of territorial and political subdivisions before the enactment of the LGC.

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Ponente: MELENCIO-HERRERA, J.

Facts:

Section 3, Article XI of the 1973 Constitution:

Sec. 3. No province, city, municipality, or barrio may be created, divided, merged, abolished, or its boundary substantially altered, except in accordance with the criteria established in the Local Government Code, and subject to the approval by a majority of the votes cast in a plebiscite in the unit or units affected.

Petitioners' Argument:

the Local Government Code must first be enacted to determine the criteria for the creation, division, merger, abolition, or substantial alteration of the boundary of any province, city, municipality, or barrio; and that since no Local Government Code had as yet been enacted as of the date BP 56 was passed, that statute could not have possibly complied with any criteria when respondent Municipality was created, hence, it is null and void.

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Issue: WON BP 56 that created the Municipality of Sibagat, Province of Agusan del Sur is  violative of Section 3, Article XI, 1973 Constitution.

Held: No.

The absence of the Local Government Code at the time of its enactment did not curtail nor was it intended to cripple legislative competence to create municipal corporations. Sec 3, Art XI of the 1973 Constitution does not proscribe nor prohibit the modification of territorial and political subdivisions before the enactment of the Local Government Code. It contains no requirement that the Local Government Code is a condition sine qua non for the creation of a municipality.

Notes: Comparison w/  the case of Tan vs. COMELEC (142 SCRA 727 [1986])

(1) In the Tan case, the Local Government Code already existed at the time that the challenged statute was enacted on 3 December 1985; not so in the case at bar.

(2) BP Blg. 885 in the Tan case confined the plebiscite to the "proposed new province" to the exclusion of the voters in the remaining areas, in contravention of the Constitutional mandate and of the Local Government Code that the plebiscite should be held "in the unit or units affected." In contrast, BP 56 specifically provides for a plebiscite "in the area or areas affected."

(3)  In the Tan case, even the requisite area for the creation of a new province was not complied with in BP Blg. 885. No such issue in the creation of the new municipality has been raised here.

(4) "indecent haste" attended the enactment of BP Blg. 885 and the holding of the plebiscite thereafter in the Tan case; on the other hand, BP 56 creating the Municipality of Sibagat, was enacted in the normal course of legislation, and the plebiscite was held within the period specified in that law.

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