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Emilio M.R. Osmena Vs. Commission On Elections

GOVERNOR EMILIO M.R. OSMENA, (Province of Cebu), GOVERNOR ROBERTO PAGDANGANAN, on behalf of the League of Governors of the Philippines, REPRESENTATIVES PABLO P. GARCIA (3rd District-Cebu), RAUL V. DEL MAR (North District, Cebu City), ANTONIO T. BACALTOS (1st District-Cebu), WILFREDO G. CAINGLET (3rd District-Zamboanga del Norte), and ROMEO GUANZON (Lone District Bacolod City), petitioners, vs. COMMISSION ON ELECTIONS, HON. OSCAR M. ORBOS, Executive Secretary, HON. GUILLERMO CARAGUE, Secretary of the Department of Budget and Management and HON. ROSALINA S. CAJUCOM, OIC National Treasury, respondents.

G.R. No. 100318 | 1991-07-30

D E C I S I O N


PARAS, J.:

For all the awesome power of the Congress and the Executive, the Court will not hesitate to "make the hammer fall, and heavily," to use Justice Laurel's pithy language, where the acts of these departments, or of any public official betray the people's will as expressed in the Constitution. (Association of Small landowners in the Philippines, Inc., v. Secretary of Agrarian Reform, 175 SCRA 343, 365).
It need only be added, to borrow again the words of Justice Laurel, that -

". . . when the Judiciary mediates to allocate constitutional boundaries, it does not assert any superiority over the other departments, it does...