"The
right to vote has reference to a constitutional guarantee of the utmost
significance. It is a right without which the principle of sovereignty residing
in the people becomes nugatory. In the traditional terminology, it is a
political right enabling every citizen to participate in the process of government
to assure that it derives its power from the consent of the governed. What was
so eloquently expressed by Justice Laurel comes to mind: 'As long as popular
government is an end to be achieved and safeguarded, suffrage, whatever may be
the modality and form devised, must continue to be the means by which the great
reservoir of power must be emptied into the receptacular agencies wrought by
the people through their Constitution in the interest of good government and
the common weal. Republicanism, in so far as it implies the adoption of a
representative type of government, necessarily points to the enfranchised
citizen as a particle of popular sovereignty and as the ultimate source of the
established authority."' (PUÑGUTAN v. ABUBAKAR, G.R. No. L-33541, January
20, 1972)
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