Dimaporo v. Mitra

Dimaporo v. Mitra

G.R. No. 96859 October 15, 1991

Davide, Jr., J.

Facts:

                Petitioner Mohamad Ali Dimaporo was elected Representative for the Second Legislative District of Lanao del Sur during the 1987 congressional elections. He took his oath of office on 9 January 1987 and thereafter performed the duties and enjoyed the rights and privileges pertaining thereto.

On 15 January 1990, petitioner filed with the Commission on Elections a Certificate of Candidacy for the position of Regional Governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. The election was scheduled for 17 February 1990.

Upon being informed of this development by the Commission on Elections, respondents Speaker and Secretary of the House of Representatives excluded petitioner’s name from the Roll of Members of the House of Representatives pursuant to Section 67, Article IX of the Omnibus Election Code.

Having lost in the autonomous region elections, petitioner expressed his intention to resume performing my duties and functions as elected Member of Congress.

Petitioner admits that he filed a Certificate of Candidacy for the position of Regional Governor of Muslim Mindanao. He, however, maintains that he did not thereby lose his seat as congressman because Section 67, Article IX of B.P. Blg. 881 is not operative under the present Constitution, being contrary thereto, and therefore not applicable to the present members of Congress.

Issue:

                Could the respondent speaker and/or respondent secretary, by administrative act, exclude the petitioner from the rolls of the House of Representatives, thereby preventing him from exercising his functions as Congressman, and depriving him of his rights and privileges as such?

Held:

                In theorizing that the provision under consideration cuts short the term of office of a Member of Congress, petitioner seems to confuse “term” with “tenure” of office.

The term of office prescribed by the Constitution may not be extended or shortened by the legislature, but the period during which an officer actually holds the office (tenure) may be affected by circumstances within or beyond the power of said officer. Tenure may be shorter than the term or it may not exist at all. These situations will not change the duration of the term of office.

Under the questioned provision, when an elective official covered thereby files a certificate of candidacy for another office, he is deemed to have voluntarily cut short his tenure, not his term. The term remains and his successor, if any, is allowed to serve its unexpired portion.

That the ground cited in Section 67, Article IX of B.P. Blg. 881 is not mentioned in the Constitution itself as a mode of shortening the tenure of office of members of Congress, does not preclude its application to present members of Congress. Section 2 of Article XI provides that “(t)he President, the Vice-President, the Members of the Supreme Court, the Members of the Constitutional Commissions, and the Ombudsman may be removed from office, on impeachment for, and conviction of, culpable violation of the Constitution, treason, bribery, graft and corruption, other high crimes, or betrayal of public trust. All other public officers and employees may be removed from office as provided by law, but not by impeachment. Such constitutional expression clearly recognizes that the four (4) grounds found in Article VI of the Constitution by which the tenure of a Congressman may be shortened are not exclusive. The expression in the constitution of the circumstances which shall bring about a vacancy does not necessarily exclude all others. Neither does it preclude the legislature from prescribing other grounds. Events so enumerated in the constitution or statutes are merely conditions the occurrence of any one of which the office shall become vacant not as a penalty but simply as the legal effect of any one of the events.