Filipinas Engineering and Machine Shop

Filipinas Engineering and Machine Shop

G.R. No. L-31455 February 28, 1985

Cuevas, J.

Issue:

                whether or not the lower court has jurisdiction to take cognizance of a suit involving an order of the COMELEC dealing with an award of contract arising from its invitation to bid

Held:

                By constitutional mandate—

The Commission on Elections shall have exclusive charge of the enforcement and administration of all laws relative to the conduct of elections and shall exercise all other functions which may be conferred upon it by law. It shall decide, save those involving the right to vote, all administrative questions affecting elections, including the determination of the number of location of Polling places, and the appointment of election inspectors and of other election officials. ... The decisions, orders and rulings of the Commission shall be subject to review by the Supreme Court. (Section 2, Article X, 1935 Philippine Constitution, which was then in force)

                Section 5 of the Revised Election Code (Republic Act No. 180, approved June 21, 1947, the election law then enforced) provided that, “(a) any controversy submitted to the Commission on Elections shall be tried, heard and decided by it within fifteen days counted from the time the corresponding petition giving rise to said controversy is filed,” and that, “any violation of any final and executory decision, order, or ruling of the Commission shall” constitute contempt of court Likewise, the same section provided that, “any decision, order or ruling of the Commission on Elections may be reviewed by the Supreme Court by writ of certiorari in accordance with the Rules of Court or with such rules as may be promulgated by the Supreme Court.

Similarly, Section 17(5) of the Judiciary Act of 1948 (Republic Act No. 296), as amended, provides that, “final awards, judgments, decisions or orders of the Commission on Elections ...” fall within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Supreme Court by way of certiorari. Section 1, Rule 43 of the 1964 Revised Rules of Court prescribed the manner of appeal by certiorari to the Supreme Court from a final ruling or decision of the Commission on Elections, among other administrative bodies.

Hence it has been consistently held that it is the Supreme Court, not the Court of First Instance, which has exclusive jurisdiction to review on certiorari final decisions, orders or rulings of the COMELEC relative to the conduct of elections and enforcement of election laws.

An order of the COMELEC awarding a contract to a private party, as a result of its choice among various proposals submitted in response to its invitation to bid does not come within the purview of a “final order” which is exclusively and directly appealable to the Supreme Court on certiorari. What is contemplated by the term “final orders, rulings and decisions” of the COMELEC reviewable by certiorari by the Supreme Court as provided by law are those rendered in actions or proceedings before the COMELEC and taken cognizance of by the said body in the exercise of its adjudicatory or quasi-judicial powers.

The powers vested by the Constitution and the law on the Commission on Elections may either be classified as those pertaining to its adjudicatory or quasi-judicial functions, or those which are inherently administrative and sometimes ministerial in character.

                The order of the Commission granting the award to a bidder is not an order rendered in a legal controversy before it wherein the parties filed their respective pleadings and presented evidence after which the questioned order was issued; and that this order of the commission was issued pursuant to its authority to enter into contracts in relation to election purposes. In short, the COMELEC resolution awarding the contract in favor of Acme was not issued pursuant to its quasi-judicial functions but merely as an incident of its inherent administrative functions over the conduct of elections, and hence, the said resolution may not be deemed as a “final order” reviewable by certiorari by the Supreme Court. Being non-judicial in character, no contempt may be imposed by the COMELEC from said order, and no direct and exclusive appeal by certiorari to this Tribunal lie from such order. Any question arising from said order may be well taken in an ordinary civil action before the trial courts.