04/02/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly The Executive branch usurps the sole discretionary power of Congress to propose amendments to the Constitution as well as the exclusive power of the sovereign people to approve or disapprove such proposed amendments. Sections 1 and 4, Article XVII of the Constitution provide: Section 1. Any amendment to, or revision of, this Constitution may be proposed by: (1) The Congress, upon a vote of three-fourths of all its Members; or (2) A constitutional convention. Section 4. Any amendment to, or revision of, this Constitution under Section 1 hereof shall be valid when ratified by a majority of the votes cast in a plebiscite which shall be held not earlier than sixty days nor later than ninety days after the approval of such amendment or revision. Indisputably, the Executive branch has no power to commit to the MILF that the Constitution shall be amended to conform to the MOA-AD. Such commitment is a grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction.[3] The MOA-AD states, in paragraph 2(a) on Territory, that "the Parties to this Agreement commit themselves to the full and mutual implementation of this framework agreement." The MOA-AD further states, in paragraph 7 on Governance, that: Any provisions of the MOA on Ancestral Domain requiring amendments to the existing legal framework shall come into force upon signing of a comprehensive compact and upon effecting the necessary changes to the legal framework with due regard to non derogation of prior agreements and within the stipulated timeframe to be contained in the Comprehensive Compact. (Emphasis supplied) The Executive branch commits to implement fully the MOA-AD by amending the "existing legal framework," impliedly referring to the Constitution. The Executive branch further commits that such constitutional amendments shall not derogate from prior GRP-MILF agreements. At the time of the constitutional amendments, the MOA-AD will be a prior agreement, along with several other GRPMILF agreements.[4] The phrase "due regard to non-derogation of prior agreements" means there shall be no deviation from previous GRP-MILF agreements. The word "due" means a right to something, as in something that is "due" a person. This is the same usage of the word "due" in the phrase "due process of law," which means one's right to legal process. The word "regard" means attention or observance. "Non-derogation" means no deviation. Thus, "due regard to non-derogation of prior agreements" simply means observance of what the MILF is entitled under previous GRP-MILF agreements, to which there shall be no deviation. The phrase "due regard" means mandatory observance and not discretionary observance. When one speaks of "due regard for the law," one intends mandatory observance of the law. The same is true for "due regard to non-derogation of prior agreements," which means mandatory observance of non-derogation of previous agreements. The following pronouncements of the Court reveal the mandatory nature of the phrase "due regard": elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/47263 92/203