Case Digest: PHILCOMSAT Holdings Corporation vs. Senate, GR 180308, June 19, 2012

FACTS:  Petitioners Locsin and Andal are bot directors and corporate officers of PHC, as well as nominees of the government to the board of directors of both POTC and PHILCOMSAT filed a petition for Certiorari and Prohibition assails and seeks to enjoin the implementation of and nullify Committee Report No. 312 submitted by respondents Senate Committees on Government Corporations and Public Enterprises and on Public Services (respondents Senate Committees) on June 7, 2007 for allegedly having been approved by respondent Senate of the Republic of the Philippines (respondent Senate) with grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or in excess of jurisdiction. 

ISSUE:  Whether or not Senate committed grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction in approving Committee Resolution No. 312 

DECISION:  Dismissed. 

RATIO DECIDENDI:  Article VI, Section 21 of the Constitution provides that the Senate or the House of Representatives or any of its respective committees may conduct inquiries in aid of legislation in accordance with its duly published rules of procedure. The rights of persons appearing in or affected by such inquiries shall be respected. Such conferral of the legislative power of inquiry upon any committee of Congress, in this case the respondents Senate Committees, must carry with it all powers necessary and proper for its effective discharge. The respondents Senate Committees cannot be said to have acted with grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or in excess of jurisdiction when it submitted Committee Resolution No. 312, given its constitutional mandate to conduct legislative inquiries.