6/7/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly To be clear, DOJ Circular No. 41 is not a law. It is not a legislative enactment which underwent the scrutiny and concurrence of lawmakers, and submitted to the President for approval. It is a mere administrative issuance apparently designed to carry out the provisions of an enabling law which the former DOJ Secretary believed to be Executive Order (E.O.) No. 292, otherwise known as the "Administrative Code of 1987." She opined that DOJ Circular No. 41 was validly issued pursuant to the agency's rulemaking powers provided in Sections 1 and 3, Book IV, Title III, Chapter 1 of E.O. No. 292 and Section 50, Chapter 11, Book IV of the mentioned Code. Indeed, administrative agencies possess quasi-legislative or rule-making powers, among others. It is the "power to make rules and regulations which results in delegated legislation that is within the confines of the granting statute and the doctrine of nondelegability and separability of powers."[90] In the exercise of this power, the rules and regulations that administrative agencies promulgate should be within the scope of the statutory authority granted by the legislature to the administrative agency. It is required that the regulation be germane to the objects and purposes of the law, and be not in contradiction to, but in conformity with, the standards prescribed by law. They must conform to and be consistent with the provisions of the enabling statute in order for such rule or regulation to be valid.[91] It is, however, important to stress that before there can even be a valid administrative issuance, there must first be a showing that the delegation of legislative power is itself valid. It is valid only if there is a law that (a) is complete in itself, setting forth therein the policy to be executed, carried out, or implemented by the delegate; and (b) fixes a standard the limits of which are sufficiently determinate and determinable to which the delegate must conform in the performance of his functions.[92] A painstaking examination of the provisions being relied upon by the former DOJ Secretary will disclose that they do not particularly vest the DOJ the authority to issue DOJ Circular No. 41 which effectively restricts the right to travel through the issuance of WLOs and HDOs. Sections 1 and 3, Book IV, Title III, Chapter 1 of E.O. No. 292 reads: Section 1. Declaration of Policy. - It is the declared policy of the State to provide the government with a principal law agency which shall be both its legal counsel and prosecution arm; administer the criminal justice system in accordance with the accepted processes thereof consisting in the investigation of the crimes, prosecution of offenders and administration of the correctional system; implement the laws on the admission and stay of aliens, citizenship, land titling system, and settlement of land problems involving small landowners and member of indigenous cultural minorities; and provide free legal services to indigent members of the society. xxxx Section 3. Powers and Functions. - to accomplish its mandate, the elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/64165 17/70