In the issue of whether or not the 1973 Constitution has been ratified validly, six members of the court (the Chief Justice, and Justices Makalintal, Zaldivar, Castro, Fernando and Teehankee), answered that the Constitution was not validly ratified. Barredo’s opinion was equivocal in its nature according to Cruz, but Joaquin Bernas, in his book on the Constitution, annotates that his opinion would be counted as concurring with the six justices. But it is unusual that of those who said that the Constitution was not validly ratified, Querube Makalintal and Fred Ruiz Castro voted to dismiss the petitions. Makalintal and Castro, in a joint opinion, justified their non-granting of relief on the basis of a case in relation to Luther v. Borden (48 U.S. (7 How.) 1; 12 L.Ed. 581, 1849). It said that the inquiry was indeed a political determination and not a judicial one.