STATUTORY CONSTRUCTION CONSTITUTIONAL TEST IN THE PASSAGE OF A BILL: 1.

Every bill passed by Congress shall embrace only one subject which shall be expressed in its title. o To prevent hodgepodge legislation o To prevent surprise or fraud upon the legislature o To fairly apprise or inform the people, in order for them to have the opportunity of being heard by petition. 2. No bill passed by either House shall become law unless it has passed 3 readings on separate days and printed copy copies of its final form have been distributed 3 days before its final passage. 3, every bill passed by congress shall be presented to the president before it becomes a law. The approval and the veto power of the president is the 3rd requirement. PARTS OF STATUTE 1. Title Heading, furnishing the name by which the act is individually known. It must embrace only one subject. Dual limitations upon legislature: o To refrain from conglomeration, under one statute of heterogeneous subjects. o Title should be in a language sufficient to notify legislators and the public of the significance of the single subject. Title can also be used to ascertain legislative intent when the language of the act does not clearly express its purpose. There is sufficient compliance if: o All the parts of the law are related to the subject matter expressed in the title.

The title indicates in broad but clear terms the nature, scope and consequences of the law and its operations. o Ultimately, if it meets the purpose of constitutional requirement #1. Effect of insufficiency in the title: o A statute whose title does not follow the constitutional requirement is null and void. o If a provision in a statute does not belong to the subject stated in the title, only that provision is invalid leaving the rest valid. However if the invalid provision is inseparable from the rest, the rest can also be invalid. *the constitutional requirement has no application to municipal or city ordinances, since they do not partake of the nature of laws enacted by congress.

2. Enacting Clause It indicates the authority that promulgated the enactment. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in Congress assembled. Not essential for the validity of the statute but it adds integrity and dignity to the statute since authority is present. 3. Preamble States the reason for, the purpose, or occasion for making the law. Helpful in the interpretation of any ambiguities within the statute to which is it prefixed. 4. Body/Purview of the statute It tells what the law is all about, including all its substantive and procedural provisions, provisos and exceptions. 5. Provisos Clause added as a qualification of the general rule.

Ex. Article 33-marriages among Muslims or among members of the ethnic cultural communities may be performed validly without the necessity of marriage license provided they are solemnized in accordance with their customs, rites or practices. 6. Interpretative clause The part where the legislature defines its own language or prescribes rules for its construction. 7. Repealing clause The part that announces legislative intent to terminate or revoke another statute or statutes. 8. Saving clause Restricts a repealing act and preserves existing powers, rights and pending proceedings from the effects of the repeal. 9. Separability clause States that if for any reason, any section or provision of the statute is held to be unconstitutional, the other section or provision of the law shall not be affected thereby. 10. Effectivity clause Announces the effective date of the law.