Facts:
Ramon R. Papa, President of the Provincial Committee of the “Partido Nacionalista Consolidado” of the City of Manila, filed and prosecuted a petition in mandamus against the
Municipal Board of the City of Manila, seeking the appointment, for each election precinct in the City of Manila, of
election inspectors and their
substitutes (and also a
secretary), in representation of political parties, based on the results of the immediately preceding election. The litigation arose from the Municipal Board’s action at its session of March 4, 1925, when it refused all participation on election boards to the
Partido Nacionalista Consolidado, which it treated as the political legatee of the
Partido Nacionalista Colectivista and the
Partido Nacionalista, and instead appointed election inspectors so as to give
majority representation to the Partido Democrata and
minority representation to the
Partido Liberal for each precinct. This plan followed the Municipal Board’s earlier refusal to include the Nacionalista Consolidado in the composition of the election boards even though the last general elections had been held in 1922 and a special election had been held on
October 2, 1923 to fill a vacancy in the office of Senator of the Fourth District including the City of Manila. At the 1922 general elections, the
Partido Democrata obtained the majority of votes in Manila, the
Partido Nacionalista Colectivista obtained the next highest, and the
Partido Nacionalista obtained the lowest, while the
Partido Liberal also polled some votes. In the special election of October 2, 1923,
Juan Sumulong ran as the official candidate of the
Partido Democrata and received
sixteen thousand twenty-two votes, while
Ramon J. Fernandez received
nineteen thousand three hundred eighty votes, filing a certificate of candidacy declaring that he did not belong to any political party at the time. The trial court found that, although Fernandez stated he was unaffiliated, he was the choice and beneficiary of the coalition formed by the
Partido Colectivista and the
Partido Nacionalista and that the coalition’s candidate had the backing of leaders of those parties during the campaign, after which the coalition parties had since been reunited under the name
Partido Nacionalista Consolidado. The case was thus prosecuted with the
Partido Liberal permitted to intervene, and after hearings the Judge of First Instance of the City of Manila granted the mandamus. The court ordered the Municipal Board to convene and, for each election precinct, appoint two election inspectors and a secretary and their respective substitutes from names proposed by the
Partido Nacionalista Consolidado, and one inspector with his substitute from names proposed by the
Partido Democrata, using the lists submitted by the parties, and to reverse previously made appointments not conforming to the judgment, with costs taxed against members of the Municipal Board who participated in the resolution that gave rise to the writ. The Municipal Board appealed.
Issues:
Whether, under
section 417 of the Administrative Code, as amended by
Acts Nos. 2711, 3030, and 3210, election inspectors for the 1925 general elections in Manila should be allocated between the
Partido Nacionalista Consolidado and the
Partido Democrata by using the vote results of the immediately preceding special election of
October 2, 1923, and, relatedly, whether votes cast for an apparently “independent” candidate in that special election could be credited to the successor party for purposes of determining which party polled the largest and next largest number of votes.
Ruling:
Ratio:
Doctrine: