Practice question
Congress specifies an objective threshold for a mandatory tax-rate change and leaves only verification of that fact to the President. The President replaces the statutory threshold with a different test selected for political convenience, then applies the higher rate. Officials invoke ABAKADA’s approval of factual ascertainment. Which is best?
- Approval of fact-finding authorizes substitution of any new policy test.
- The President becomes Congress for every tax purpose.
- The original statutory threshold automatically disappears.
- ABAKADA’s distinction does not justify changing the legislative trigger; ascertainment is different from rewriting the condition.
- Political convenience is always the constitutional tax standard.
Legal references
- ABAKADA Guro Party List v. Ermita, G.R. No. 168056 et al., September 1, 2005, main decision: https://elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocs/1/48624
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