Visarra v. Miraflor

BENGZON, J.:

The parties hereto are litigating over the position of third member of the Commission on Elections, which according to the Constitution, consists of one chairman and two members. Actual chairman is the incumbent Hon. Juan V. Borra; the undisputed incumbent member is Hon. Sixto Brillantes. In establishing the Commission, the Constitution provided that the Commissioners shall hold office for nine years and may not be reappointed.

However, it also provided that of those first appointee, "one shall hold office for nine years, another for six years and the third for three years." Since 1941, changes occurred in the membership of the Commission. And in March, 1955, in a similar dispute (Republic vs. Imperial),1 we had occasion to discuss the terms of office and the tenure of said officers.

We held that the term of the first chairman (Jose Lopez Vito, 9 years) began on June 21, 1941, and ended on June 20, 1950),2 that the term of the second member (Francisco Enage, 6 years) began on June 21, 1941, and ended June 20, 1947), 2 and that of the third member (3 years - left vacant) began on June 21, 1941 to terminate June 20, 1944. Proceeding further, we held that when in 1945 Vicente de Vera was appointed member, he must have been placed in the only vacant position at that time, namely, the position whose term expired in June 1944 (third member) - and that he must be deemed to have been appointed to a nine-year term (expiring June, 1953), which is the term given by law to all commissioners3 appointed after June 20, 1944. Then upon the first vacancy by expiration of the initial 6-year term (second member) and the cessation of Commissioner Enage in November, 1949,4 Rodrigo Perez was appointed (December, 1949) to the nine-year term expiring in June, 1956.

Afterwards, in May, 1947, chairman Jose Lopez Vito died before the expiration of his full term. To succeed him as chairman commissioner De Vera was appointed - which appointment we held, could only be for the unexpired period of Lopez Vito's original term, i.e., up to June 20, 1950. To fill the vacancy of third member arising upon Vera's assumption of the chairmanship, Leopoldo Rovira was appointed member on May 22, 1947, and his tenure of office could not legally extend beyond that of former Commissioner Vera: June 20, 1953.5 Upon expiration of Chairman Vera's term on June 20, 1950, Domingo Imperial assumed the office with a term due to expire on June 20,1959.

Thus the line of succession, terms of office and tenure of the chairman and members of the Commission as of March, 1955, may be outlined as follows: