Limbona v. Mangelin
G.R. No. 80391
February 28, 1989
Sarmiento, J.
Held:
Autonomy is either decentralization of administration or decentralization
of power. There is decentralization of administration
when the central government delegates administrative powers to political subdivisions
in order to broaden the base of government power and in the process to make local
governments more responsive and accountable, and
ensure their fullest development as self-reliant communities and make them more
effective partners in the pursuit of national development and social progress. At the same time, it relieves the central government
of the burden of managing local affairs and enables it to concentrate on national
concerns. The President exercises general supervision over them, but only to ensure that local affairs
are administered according to law. He has
no control over their acts in the sense that he can substitute their judgments with
his own.
Decentralization of power, on the other hand, involves an abdication of political
power in the favor of local governments units declare to be autonomous. In that
case, the autonomous government is free to chart its own destiny and shape its future
with minimum intervention from central authorities. According to a constitutional
author, decentralization of power amounts to “self-immolation,” since in that event,
the autonomous government becomes accountable not to the central authorities but
to its constituency.
Under the 1987 Constitution, local
government units enjoy autonomy in these two senses, thus:
Section 1. The territorial and political subdivisions
of the Republic of the Philippines are the provinces, cities, municipalities, and
barangays. Here shall be autonomous regions in Muslim Mindanao ,and the Cordilleras
as hereinafter provided.
Sec. 2. The territorial and political subdivisions shall
enjoy local autonomy.
xxx xxx xxx
See. 15. Mere shall be created autonomous regions in
Muslim Mindanao and in the Cordilleras consisting of provinces, cities, municipalities,
and geographical areas sharing common and distinctive historical and cultural heritage,
economic and social structures, and other relevant characteristics within the framework
of this Constitution and the national sovereignty as well as territorial integrity
of the Republic of the Philippines.
An autonomous government that enjoys autonomy of the latter category is subject
alone to the decree of the organic act creating it and accepted principles on the
effects and limits of “autonomy.” On the other hand, an autonomous government of
the former class is, as we noted, under the supervision of the national government
acting through the President (and the Department of Local Government). If the Sangguniang
Pampook (of Region XII), then, is autonomous in the latter sense, its acts are,
debatably beyond the domain of the Supreme Court in perhaps the same way that the internal acts, say, of the Congress of the Philippines
are beyond our jurisdiction. But if it is autonomous in the former category only,
it comes unarguably under our jurisdiction. An examination of the very Presidential
Decree creating the autonomous governments of Mindanao persuades us that they were
never meant to exercise autonomy in the second sense, that is, in which the central
government commits an act of self-immolation. Presidential Decree No. 1618, in the
first place, mandates that “[t]he President shall have the power of general supervision
and control over Autonomous Regions.”
