This case has been cited 6 times or more.
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2013-01-08 |
VELASCO JR., J. |
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| In Borja, Jr. v. Commission on Elections and Jose T. Capco, Jr.[35] (1998) and Montebon v. Commission on Elections[36] (2008), the Court delved on the effects of "assumption to office by operation of law" on the three-term limit rule. This contemplates a situation wherein an elective local official fills by succession a higher local government post permanently left vacant due to any of the following contingencies, i.e., when the supposed incumbent refuses to assume office, fails to qualify, dies, is removed from office, voluntarily resigns or is otherwise permanently incapacitated to discharge the functions of his office.[37] | |||||
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2011-10-18 |
BRION, J. |
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| We find this to be an erroneous approach that violates a basic principle in constitutional construction - ut magis valeat quam pereat: that the Constitution is to be interpreted as a whole,[81] and one mandate should not be given importance over the other except where the primacy of one over the other is clear.[82] We refer to the Court's declaration in Ang-Angco v. Castillo, et al.,[83] thus: | |||||
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2009-12-23 |
BRION, J. |
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| Ong v. Alegre[8] and Rivera v. COMELEC,[9] like Lonzanida, also involved the issue of whether there had been a completed term for purposes of the three-term limit disqualification. These cases, however, presented an interesting twist, as their final judgments in the electoral contest came after the term of the contested office had expired so that the elective officials in these cases were never effectively unseated. | |||||
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2009-03-17 |
PERALTA, J. |
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| Further, in Borja, Jr. v. Commission on Elections,[19] respondent therein, Jose T. Capco, Jr., was elected as Vice-Mayor of Pateros on January 18, 1988 for a term ending on June 30, 1992. On September 2, 1989, Capco became Mayor, by operation of law, upon the death of the incumbent, Cesar Borja. Thereafter, Capco was elected and served as Mayor for two more terms, from 1992 to 1998. On March 27, 1998, Capco filed a Certificate of Candidacy for Mayor of Pateros in the May 11, 1998 election. Capco's disqualification was sought on the ground that he would have already served as Mayor for three consecutive terms by June 30, 1998; hence, he would be ineligible to serve for another term. The Court declared that the term limit for elective local officials must be taken to refer to the right to be elected as well as the right to serve the same elective position.[20] The Court held that Capco was qualified to run again as mayor in the next election because he was not elected to the office of mayor in the first term but simply found himself thrust into it by operation of law.[21] Neither had he served the full term because he only continued the service, interrupted by the death, of the deceased mayor.[22] The vice-mayor's assumption of the mayorship in the event of the vacancy is more a matter of chance than of design.[23] Hence, his service in that office should not be counted in the application of any term limit.[24] | |||||
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2007-05-09 |
SANDOVAL-GUTIERREZ, J. |
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| Here, respondent Morales invoked not only Lonzanida v. COMELEC,[3] but also Borja, Jr. v. Commission on Elections[4] which is likewise inapplicable. The facts in Borja are:Private respondent Jose T. Capco was elected vice-mayor of Pateros on January 18, 1998 for a term ending June 30, 1992. On September 2, 1989, he became mayor, by operation of law, upon the death of the incumbent, Cesar Borja. On May 11, 1992, he ran and was elected mayor for a term of three years which ended on June 30, 1995. On May 8, 1995, he was reelected mayor for another term of three years ending June 30, 1998. | |||||