Case Digest (G.R. No. L-3452)
Facts:
The Nacionalista Party v. Felix Angelo Bautista, G.R. No. L-3452, December 07, 1949, the Supreme Court En Banc, Padilla, J., writing for the Court. Petitioner The Nacionalista Party sought a writ of prohibition to restrain respondent Felix Angelo Bautista, then Solicitor General, from acting as an acting member of the Commission on Elections after his designation by the President on November 9, 1949. The petition alleged that respondent, while retaining the office of Solicitor General, had taken the oath and assumed the duties of Acting Commissioner without resigning his permanent post.Petitioner argued that there was no vacancy because Commissioner Francisco Enage's purported application for retirement had been accepted in bad faith and amounted to an abuse of discretion, and that even if a vacancy existed the President could not validly designate a temporary acting member to a constitutionally permanent office; membership in the Commission was a fixed nine‑year tenure, and a member could not simultaneously hold another office. The petition also alleged various possible conflicts of interest and political motives arising from respondent's prior representation of the President.
Respondent admitted the designation and his simultaneous retention of the Solicitor General post, defended the designation as within the President's appointing power and expressly authorized by Commonwealth Act No. 588, and contended there was a vacancy because Commissioner Enage had applied for retirement (in 1941, reiterated 1946 and 1948) and the President accepted it on November 9, 1949.
The Court considered (1) whether Enage's retirement created a vacancy; (2) whether the President could lawfully designate an acting member to the Commission on Elections who would retain another public office; and (3) whether prohibition was the appropriate remedy. No lower court dispositions ap...(Pro-only)
Issues:
- Is the writ of prohibition a proper remedy to challenge respondent's designation as acting member of the Commission on Elections?
- Does petitioner have legal capacity to sue (is it a juridical person entitled to institute the proceedings)?
- Did Commissioner Francisco Enage's retirement, as accepted by the President on November 9, 1949, create a vacancy in the Commission on Elections?
- Was the designation of the Solicitor General as acting member of the Commission on Elections, while he retained the office ...(Pro-only)
Ruling:
- (Pro-only)
Ratio:
- (Pro-only)
Doctrine:
- (Pro-only)