04/02/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly and the proper circumstances under which laws are proposed or amended. As held in Ople v. Torres:[25] ... Legislative power is “the authority, under the Constitution, to make laws, and to alter and repeal them.” The Constitution, as the will of the people in their original, sovereign and unlimited capacity, has vested this power in the Congress of the Philippines. The grant of legislative power to Congress is broad, general and comprehensive. The legislative body possesses plenary power for all purposes of civil government. Similarly, the power to amend or revise the Constitution also pertains to Congress in the exercise of its constituent functions. The same power is also reserved to the people under a system of initiative, pursuant to Article XVII[26] of the Constitution. In Lambino v. COMELEC,[27] the Court stated that there are three modes of amending the Constitution under Article XVII. The first mode is through Congress, acting as a constituent assembly, upon three-fourth’s vote of all its Members; the second mode is through a constitutional convention created under a law passed by Congress; and the third mode is through a people’s initiative. Nowhere in the Constitution does it state that the Executive or any of its organs can effect constitutional changes, as assumed by the GRP panel under the MOA-AD. Notwithstanding the apparent lack of power or authority, the GRP panel undertook to effect changes to the Constitution and to statutes in order to fully implement the MOA-AD. In doing so, the GRP panel pre-empted Congress by determining, firsthand, the wisdom of effecting these changes as well as the nature of the required amendments to laws and the Constitution. It encroached upon the exclusive prerogative of Congress by assuming to exercise a discretion that it did not possess. It thus exceeded its authority and acted without jurisdiction. It should have been evident to the GRP panel that it could not bargain away laws enacted by Congress or the people’s sovereign will as expressed in the Constitution. Apart from the fact that it had no power to do so, its acts were in clear disregard of the instructions of the President as stated in the Memorandum of Instructions From the President dated March 1, 2001. The President clearly directed therein that “(t)he negotiations shall be conducted in accordance with the mandates of the Philippine Constitution, the Rule of Law, and the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of the Philippines.” The GRP panel did otherwise and failed to act in accordance with this directive. The GRP panel derives its authority from the Chief Executive, whose sworn duty is to faithfully execute the laws and uphold the Constitution. In negotiating the terms of the MOA-AD, however, the GRP panel violated our Constitution and our laws by subscribing to stipulations that could very well lead to their emasculation. The GRP panel agreed to illegal and unconstitutional concessions and guaranteed the performance of a prestation that it could not deliver. This constitutes manifest grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction. It is beyond question that the MOA-AD is patently unconstitutional. Had it been signed by the parties, it would have bound the government to the creation of a separate Bangsamoro state having its own territory, government, civil institutions and armed forces. The concessions that respondents made to the MILF would have given the latter leverage to demand that the Bangsamoro homeland be recognized elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/47263 87/203