Chiongbian vs Orbos, G.R. No.

96754, June 22, 1995

Facts: The Congress passed the Organic Act for the Autonomous Region in
Muslim Mindanao (RA 6743)0 pursuant to Article 10, Section 18 of the
Constitution. A plebiscite was called in some provinces which resulted to 4
provinces (Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu and Tawi Tawi) in favor of
creating an autonomous region and therefore became the ARMM. The RA
says that those provinces and cities who did not vote in favor of it shall
remain in their existing administrative regions provided, however, that the
President may merge the existing regions through administrative
determination. President Cory then issued the EO containing the
provinces/cities that will be “merged,” transferring provinces from their
existing region to another. The petitioners who are members of the
Congress representing legislative districts protested the Executive Order,
saying that there is no law which authorizes the President to pick certain
provinces and cities within existing regions and restructure them to new
administrative regions. The transfer of one province under its current
region to another (ex: Misamis Occidental from Region X to IX) is a form of
reorganization, an alteration of the existing structures of the government.
The RA 6743 only holds authority of the president to merge existing regions
and cannot be construed as reorganizing them.

Issue: W/N the power to merge administrative regions is legislative

(petitioner’s stand) in character or executive as the respondents contend1

Petitioners: It unduly delegates power to the President to merge regions

through administrative determination or at any rate provides no standard
for the exercise of the power delegated

Respondents: No undue delegation but only a grant of power to fill up or

provide the details of legislation because the Congress did not have the
facility to provide for them

Ruling: Petition is DISMISSED.

The creation and subsequent reorganization of administrative regions have

been by the President pursuant to authority granted to him by law. In
conferring on the President the power to merge the existing regions
following the establishment of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao,
Congress merely followed the pattern set in previous legislation dating back
to the initial organization of administrative regions in 1972. (RA5453) This
was also the basis for the sufficient standard by which the President is to be
guided in the exercise of power. Standard can be gathered or implied.
Standard can be found in the same policy underlying grant of power to the
President in RA No. 5435 of the power to reorganize the Executive
Department: “to promote simplicity, economy, efficiency, in the government
to enable it to pursue its programs consisted with the national goals for
accelerated social and economic development.”