I

A law was enacted empowering the Department of Justice to issue a take-down order for website owners and/or
administrators to put offline websites that have been reported by at least 10 people for any of the following reasons: the
website encourages rebellion, the website accuses President Duterte of various crimes, the website is pornographic, the
website is a portal for investment scammers. Is this constitutional?

Suggested Answer:

No, the law is unconstitutional for being violative of the right to due process of the website owners and/or
administrators. Section 1, Article III of the 1987 Constitution provides that No person shall be deprived of life, liberty
and property without due process of law x x x. The law enacted in this case violates procedural due process which
requires a hearing before condemnation as it proceeds from an inquiry before judgment because it authorizes the DOJ to
issue a take-down order for websites that have been reported by at least 10 people to violate any of the acts enumerated
in the law without hearing their side.

Alternative Answer:

No, the law is unconstitutional for being an invalid exercise of police power. The Court held in the case of SJS v. Lim, G.R.
No. 187836, Nov. 23, 2014 that the valid exercise of police power requires the concurrence of a lawful subject and lawful
means. The law enacted in this case fails to satisfy the second requisite because although its subject is lawful as it seeks
to safeguard the society from the acts punished by the law, the means employed which is taking down the websites that
have been reported by at least 10 people is unlawful as it proceeds to punish without giving the owners and/or
administrators the opportunity to be heard.

II

What is the difference between the power to convert lands and the power to reclassify? Explain.

Suggested Answer:

Conversion is the act of changing the current use of a piece of agricultural land into some other use as approved by the
DAR, while reclassification is the act of specifying how agricultural lands shall be utilized for non-agricultural uses such as
residential, industrial and commercial as embodied in the land use plan, subject to the requirements and procedure for
land use conversion. The mere reclassification of an agricultural land does not automatically allow a landowner to
change its use, it has to undergo the process of conversion before he is permitted to use the agricultural land for other
purposes.