G.R. No. L-28455, February 10, 1968
Pantaleon Pacis, petitioner, vs. Commission on Elections, Atanacio Negre, and Atanacio Ramiro, respondents.

FACTS

In the November 14, 1967 elections for Mayor of Sanchez Mira, Cagayan, Pantaleon Pacis (NP) and Atanacio Negre (LP) were candidates. On November 18, 1967, a municipal board of canvassers, composed of substitute members appointed by the Comelec registrar, convened, canvassed the returns, and proclaimed Pantaleon Pacis as Mayor-elect. This proclamation was ratified by the same board on November 23, 1967. On November 19, 1967, respondents Negre and Ramiro filed an urgent petition with the Comelec to suspend or annul the canvass and proclamation, alleging that Pacis, through terrorism and intimidation, forcibly seized and tampered with election documents from several barrios, and that his armed goons gunned down Vice Mayor Manuel Franco (Negre’s campaign manager). The Comelec, on November 19, resolved to order the suspension of the canvass and proclamation. On December 8, 1967, Negre and Ramiro filed a supplemental petition alleging the board was illegally constituted as the LP was not asked to recommend substitutes for its disqualified members. On December 24, 1967, the Comelec en banc declared the November 23 canvass and proclamation null and void due to an illegally constituted board, and ordered a new board to convene in Manila. This resolution was later amended to hold the proclamation in abeyance. Nevertheless, on December 28, 1967, a board of canvassers, upon Comelec’s authority, proclaimed Atanacio Negre as Mayor-elect. Meanwhile, on November 29, 1967, Negre had also filed a petition in the Court of First Instance of Cagayan to annul Pacis’s proclamation. Pacis then filed the present petition for certiorari with the Supreme Court.

ISSUE

Whether the Commission on Elections acted with grave abuse of discretion or in excess of jurisdiction in issuing its resolutions that led to the annulment of Pacis’s proclamation and the subsequent proclamation of Negre.

RULING

The Supreme Court granted the petition. It ruled that the Comelec acted without jurisdiction and with grave abuse of discretion. The Court found that the municipal board of canvassers that proclaimed Pacis on November 18 and 23 was illegally constituted because the substitute members were not appointed in accordance with law. The law required that for an incumbent councilor seeking re-election, the substitute must belong to the same party as the councilor. For the LP councilors seeking re-election (Ilac, Casil, Macugay), the substitutes should have been LP members. However, all six appointed substitutes were NP members. Therefore, Pacis’s proclamation was null and void. The Court also ruled that the Comelec’s subsequent order for a new canvass and the resulting proclamation of Negre on December 28 were likewise null and void. The Comelec’s power to order a canvass and proclamation is limited to cases where the returns are obviously falsified or where a pre-proclamation controversy is filed before the board of canvassers completes its canvass and proclamation. Here, Negre’s petition to the Comelec was filed after Pacis had already been proclaimed. At that point, the proper remedy for Negre was an election protest in the Court of First Instance, not a pre-proclamation controversy with the Comelec. The Comelec’s assumption of jurisdiction to annul Pacis’s proclamation and order a new one was an act in excess of its jurisdiction. Consequently, both proclamations (Pacis’s and Negre’s) were declared null and void. The Supreme Court directed the Comelec to: (1) constitute a new municipal board of canvassers in accordance with the law; (2) conduct an investigation to ascertain the true returns from the contested precincts; and (3) order the new board to canvass all returns and proclaim the winning candidate.