Case Digest: Gamboa v. Teves, G.R. No. 176579, June 28, 2011

Political Law Review | Self-executing provisions


  • Wilson P. Gamboa, a stockholder of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT), filed an original petition for prohibition, injunction, declaratory relief, and nullity of sale against Finance Secretary Margarito B. Teves and other respondents. 

  • He challenged the government’s sale of 111,415 shares (46.125% of capital) of Philippine Telecommunications Investment Corporation (PTIC), PLDT’s holding company, to Metro Pacific Assets Holdings, Inc., an affiliate of First Pacific Company Limited.

  • PTIC already held about 13.847% of PLDT’s outstanding common shares; the sale increased First Pacific’s indirect common‐shareholding in PLDT from 30.7% to 37%, and, when combined with other foreign investors, raised total foreign common shareholdings in PLDT to over 51%, breaching the 40% ceiling on foreign ownership of public utilities under Section 11, Article XII of the Constitution.


Whether Section 11, Article XII a self-executing provision. YES

  • Section 11, Article XII is self-executing, like other nationality-reservation provisions in the Constitution, and needs no implementing statute. 

  • To treat it as non-self-executing “would mean that… since the 1935 Constitution… not one of the constitutional provisions expressly reserving certain areas of investments… was enforceable.”

  • “Capital” in Sec. 11, Art. XII refers only to shares entitled to vote in the election of directors or common stock. Non-voting preferred shares are excluded because control is exercised solely through voting shares.

  • Accordingly, the sale of PTIC shares to First Pacific violated the Constitution’s mandate that public‐utility franchises be granted only to entities “at least sixty per centum of whose capital is owned by… citizens [of the Philippines].”

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