Case Digest (G.R. No. 95275-76)
Facts:
Petitioner Sixto De la Victoria and the late Genoveva S. Mesina were the mayoral candidates in Albuera, Leyte, in the local elections of February 1, 1988; Mesina obtained 5,103 votes and was proclaimed mayor on February 3, 1988. De la Victoria later filed an election protest with the Regional Trial Court (RTC), Branch 14, Baybay, Leyte, against Mesina, but while the case was pending Mesina died on July 22, 1989, and her vice-mayor running mate, Aquilino Cantiga, Jr., assumed the mayorship by operation of law; neither Mesina’s heirs nor her counsel informed the trial court of the death.
After De la Victoria withdrew his COMELEC pre-proclamation complaints and waived his claim for damages and costs against Mesina, the trial court denied the heirs’ motion for substitution and dismissed their notice of appeal, then on July 17, 1990 declared De la Victoria the duly elected mayor. The COMELEC later set aside the trial court orders, declared the execution void, and allowed the heirs’ appeal, prompting De la Victoria’s petition for certiorari (and TRO), which sought to reinstate the trial court’s final and executory decision.
Issues:
- Whether the heirs of a deceased protestee in an election protest could be considered the real party in interest even when the vice-mayor had intervened and the protestant had waived damages and costs.
- Whether the heirs could appeal the election protest decision of the RTC.
Ruling:
The Court granted the petition for certiorari, finding that both questions had to be answered in the negative. It upheld the proclamation of Sixto De la Victoria as mayor of Albuera, Leyte, with costs against the private respondents.
Ratio:
The Court held that public office is personal to the incumbent and is not a right that devolves upon heirs; thus, Mesina’s claim to the contested office did not survive for transmission to her heirs after her death. The heirs’ interest remained limited to defending the possible award of costs against the deceased, but this interest was already withdrawn because De la Victoria waived his claim for damages and costs, effectively withdrawing them “from the picture altogether.”
The Court likewise ruled that the vice-mayor who succeeded the deceased protestee became the real party in interest in the continuation of the election contest, citing that if the protest succeeded and the protestee was unseated, the vice-mayor would succeed to the office that became vacant. While the Court noted the Solicitor General’s view that the COMELEC had acted with grave abuse of discretion in giving due course to petitions filed beyond the period allowed by its rules and in issuing an injunction without the required bond, it found the COMELEC’s subsequent dismissal of the “reinstated” appeal for failure to file an appellant’s brief had rendered those procedural controversies moot and academic.
Doctrine:
- A deceased protestee’s claim to the contested public office does not survive to the heirs because public office is personal to the incumbent.
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