STATUTORY CONSTRUCTION

I. Statute: - A constitution differs from a statute in that a statute must provide the details of the subject of which it treats, whereas a constitution usually states general principles and builds the substantial foundation and general framework of the law and government (Moreno). - Statute is an act of legislature as an organized body expressed in the form, and passed according to the procedure, required to constitute it as part of the law of the land. Statutes enacted by legislature are those passed by the Philippine Commission, the Philippine legislature, the Batasang Pambansa, and the Congress of the Philippines (Agpalo). II. Classification of Statutes (Agpalo): - Public Statute: A public statute is one which affects the public at large or the whole community. Example: a. General law: Applies to the whole state and operates throughout the state alike upon all the people or all of a class. It is one which embraces a class of subjects or places and does not omit any subject or place naturally belonging to such class. It is one which embraces a class of subjects or places and does not omit any subject or place naturally belonging to such class. b. Special law: One which related to particular persons or things of a class or to a particular community, individual or thing. c. Local law: One whose operation is confined to a specific place or locality. A municipal ordinance is one example of a local law. - Private Statute: applies only to a specific person or subject - Permanent Statute: A statute whose operation is not limited in duration but continues until repealed. It does not terminate by the lapse of a fixed period or by the occurrence of an event. Neither disuse nor custom or practice to the contrary operated to render it ineffective or inoperative. - Temporary Statute: A statute whose duration is for a limited period of time fixed in the statute itself whose life ceases upon the happening of an event. Where a statute provides that it shall be in force for a definite period, it terminates at the end of such period. Since an emergency is by nature temporary in character, so must the statute intended to meet it be. A limit in time to tide over a passing trouble may justify a law that may not be upheld as a permanent one. - Prospective Statute: likely to happen at a future date; concerned with or applying to the future (Oxford) - Retroactive Statute: taking effect from a date in the past (Oxford) - Statutes according to Operation: declaratory, curative, mandatory, directory, substantive, remedial, and penal - Statutes according to Forms: affirmative or negative III. Parts of a Statute (Agpalo):

1. Preamble: Prefatory statement or explanation or a finding of facts, reciting the purpose, reason, or occasion for making the law which is prefixed. 2. Title of Statute: The Constitution provides that every bill passed by Congress shall embrace only one subject which shall be expressed in the title. 1st the legislature is to refrain from conglomeration, under one statute, of heterogeneous subjects. 2nd the title of the bill is to be couched in a language sufficient to notify the legislators and the public and those concerned of the import of the single subject thereof. 3. Enacting Clause: The part of the statute written immediately after the title thereof which states the authority by which the act is enacted. 4. Purview or body of Statute: Part which tells what the law is all about. The body of a statute should embrace only one subject matter. 5. Separability Clause: The part of a statute which states that if any provision of the act is declared invalid, the remainder shall not be affected thereby. It is a legislative expression of intent that the nullity of one provision shall not invalidate the other provisions of the act. Such a clause is not, however, controlling and the courts may, in spite of it, invalidate the whole statute where what is left, after the void part, is not complete and workable. 6. Repealing Clause: 7. Effectivity Clause: The provision when the law takes effect. Usually, the provision as to the effectivity of the law states that it shall take effect (15) days from publication in the Official Gazette or in the newspapers of general circulation. III. Construction and Interpretation 1. Construction: Construction is the process of drawing warranted conclusions not always included in direct expressions or determining the application of words to facts of litigation (Agpalo). One who constructs makes use of extrinsic aids or those found outside of the written language of the law (Suarez). 2. Interpretation: Interpretation is the art of finding the true meaning of any form of words (Agpalo). One who interprets makes use of intrinsic aids or those found in the statute itself (Suarez). IV. Statutory Construction Statutory Construction is the art or process of discovering and expounding the meaning and intention of the authors of the law, where that intention is rendered doubtful by reason of the ambiguity in its language or of the fact that the given case is not explicitly provided for in law (Agpalo). V. Rules of Interpretation 1. Ejusdem generis:

The general rule is that where a general word or phrase follows an enumeration of particular and specific words of the same class or where the latter follows the former, the general word or phrase is to be construed to include or to be restricted to, persons things or cases akin to, resembling, or of the same kind or class as those specifically mentioned (Agpalo). 2. Expressio unius est exclusio alterius: The express mention of one person, thing, or consequence implies the exclusion of all others (Agpalo). 3. Shall and May: Shall: expressing a strong assertion or intention (Oxford). May: expressing possibility (Oxford). 4. Conjunctive and Disjunctive words: a. Or: Or is a disjunctive term signifying disassociation and independence of one thing from each of the other things enumerated (Agpalo). b. And: The word And is a conjunction pertinently defined as meaning together with, along or together with, added to or linked to, used to conjoin word with word, phrase with phrase, clause with clause (Agpalo). VI. Intrinsic Aids (Suarez) Title, preamble, words, phrases and sentences context; punctuation; heading and marginal notes; and the legislative definitions and interpretation clauses. VII. Extrinsic Aids (Suarez) a. Contemporaneous circumstances b. Policy c. Legislative history of the statute d. Contemporaneous or practical construction e. Legislative construction f. Judicial construction g. Construction by the bar and legal commentators

PRESUMPTIONS 1) Presumption as to right and justice 2) Presumption of Constitutionality a. Conclusive presumption b. Inconclusive presumption 3) Presumption that Legislative did not exhibit authority 4) Presumption against ineffectiveness 5) P against absurdity 6) P against inconsistency

7) P as to public policy 8) P as to knowledge of existing laws 9) P against improper motives/bad faith 10) P against irrepealable laws