Professional Documents
Culture Documents
CHAVEZ VS JBC
-Verba Legis non est recedendum
WHETHER the JBC’s practice of having one member from senate and house of representative making 8
members instead of 7 is constitutional as provided by Article 7 Section 8 of the Consti
Francisco Chavez- questioned the Section 8 Article 7 of 1987 Constitution-allowing more than one
member of the congress to sit in the Judicial Bar Council (JBC)
-Fransisco Escudero-Senator and Neil Tupas-Congressman sitting as representative of congress
SIMULTANOEUSLY having ½ votes each.
-Petition is granted and thereby declared that the current number of the JBC is unconstitutional –hence,
Motion for Reconsideration of JBC.
SUPREME COURT
-Reconstitute itself that only ONE member of the congress SHALL BE MEMBER of JBC “a representative of
congress” should be construe as having only one and understood as its plain meaning. As a bicameral
system of legislature “congress” refers to both houses.
PETITION DISMISSED
EUGENIO VS DRILON
-On May 10, 1972, private respondent purchased on installment basis from petitioner and his co-
owner/developer Fermin Salazar, two lots in the E & S Delta Village in Quezon City.
-Acting on complaints for non-development docketed as NHA Cases Nos. 2619 and 2620 filed by the Delta
Village Homeowners’ Association, Inc., the National Housing Authority (NHA) rendered a resolution on
January 17, 1979 inter alia ordering petitioner to cease and desist from making further sales of lots in said
village or in any project owned by him.
-Private respondent filed with the Office of Appeals, Adjudication and Legal Affairs (OAALA) of the Human
Settlements Regulatory Commission (HSRC), a complaint (Case No. 80-589) against petitioner and spouses
Rodolfo and Adelina Relevo alleging that, in view of the above NHA resolution, he suspended payment of
his amortization, but that petitioner resold one of the two lots to the said spouses Relevo, in whose favor
title to the said property was registered. Private respondent further alleged that he suspended his
payments because of petitioner’s failure to develop the village. On October 11, 1983, the OAALA rendered
a decision upholding the right of petitioner to cancel the contract with private respondent and dismissed
private respondent’s complaint. The Commission Proper of the HSRC reversed the OAALA and, applying
P.D. 957
ISSUE
Whether or not the HSRC committed an error in reversing the decision of OAALA with the basis of P.D.
957
SUPREME COURT:
The petition is dismissed and deemed P.D. 957 to apply retrospectively
The court used the basis of the intent of the law, as called from its preamble and from the situation,
circumstances and conditions it sought to remedy, must be enforced. On this point, a leading authority
on statutory construction stressed. The court decided to construe P.D 957 by looking into the true intent
of the legislature. The legislative intent must have been to remedy the alarming situation by having P.D.
957 operate retrospectively even upon contracts already in existence at the time of its enactment.
TANADA VS TUVERA
The petitioner filed a petition for mandamus against multiple Presidential Decrees, Letter of Instructions,
General Orders, Executive Orders, Letter of Implementation, and Administrative Orders for violating Sec.
6 of Art. IV of the 1973 Constitution and Art. 2 of the Civil Code where it states that laws to be valid and
enforceable must be published in the Official Gazette or otherwise effectively promulgated.
-Petitioner filed the petition for mandamus to compel the respondents to publish the said laws to make
it effective. Petitioner contends that the “Unless it is otherwise provided” relates to the date of the
effectivity and not to the choice to publish said Presidential Issuances.
ISSUES:
Whether or not the aforementioned Presidential Issuances should be published before gaining its
effectivy
SUPREME COURT
The court deemed that the presidential issuances of general application, which have not been published,
shall have no force and effect. In the spirit of transparency, the court affirmed the argument of the
petitioner that the “Unless it is otherwise provided” relates to the date of the effectivity rather than the
publication of the said law because a person should be able to know what the law prohibits him to do.
ANTONIO VS MIRANDA
-The parties in this case were rival candidates for the Punong Barangay of Barangay Ilaya, Las Piñas City,
Metro Manila.
After the board of canvassers proclaimed protestee-appellant Rustico Antonio, protestant-appellee
Vicente T. Miranda, Jr. filed an election protest docketed as Election Protest Case No. 97-0017 against
Antonio before the Metropolitan Trial Court of Las Piñas City.
The court then ruled Vicente Miranda as the duly elected Barangay Chairman of Barangay Ilaya, Las Piñas
City, Metro Manila. Antonio filed a Notice of Appeal with the trial court on 27 March 1998 or nine (9) days
after receipt thereof. Meanwhile, Miranda moved to execute the trial court's decision. Antonio then
received a notice from the Commission on Elections saying that he failed to perfect his appeal within the
five (5) days period prescribed for perfecting his appeal, as he filed his Notice of Appeal only on March 27,
1998 or nine (9) days after receipt of the decision sought to be appealed.
The Period aforestated is jurisdictional and failure of the protestee to perfect his appeal within the said
period deprives the Commission of its appellate jurisdiction. Antonio asserts that Section 9 of Republic
Act 6679 and Section 252 of the Omnibus Election Code providing for a ten-day period to appeal prevails
over the provisions of the COMELEC Rules of Procedure. Petitioner submits that the dispositive portion in
the Flores case only declared unconstitutional that portion of Section 9 of Republic Act 6679 providing for
appeal to the Regional Trial Court but not the ten (10) day period of appeal.
ISSUES
Whether or not COMELEC committed a grave abuse of discretion for affirming the decision of the MTC
and dismissing the petition for review of Antonio on the basis that he did not file his petition for review
on time.
SUPREME COURT
On the previous case of Flores v COMELEC, the court deemed Sec. 9 of R.A. 6679 to be unconstitutional
as a whole. COMELEC did not commit a grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of
jurisdiction for sticking to the Sec. 252 of the Omnibus Election code. When the court deemed Sec. 9 of
R.A. 6679, even though the previous case of Flores v COMELEC had a problem with the venue of where
the petitioner filed the petition for review, the court removed the whole body of the section including the
dates for it is reliant to the part of the venue and the date cannot stand on its own.
PEOPLE VS YABUT
-Appellant, Yabut, was charged in the Court of First Instance of Manila with the crime of murder.
-On the 1st of August 1932, the appellant, Antonio Yabut, who was currently serving a prison sentence in
Bilibid Prison, killed Sabas Aseo, another person serving a prison sentence, by hitting him at the back of
the head with a wooden club. Yabut was already convicted twice of the crime of homicide and once of
serious physical injuries. Yabut pleaded not guilty on the basis that it was not him who attacked Aseo, but
was Villafuente who struck down Aseo.
ISSUE
Whether or not the lower court made an error in applying art. 160 of the Revised Penal Code
SUPREME COURT
The petition is sustained
The appellant places much stress upon the word "another" appearing in the English translation of the
headnote of article 160 and would have us accept his deduction from the headnote that article 160 is
applicable only when the new crime which is committed by a person already serving sentence is different
from the crime for which he is serving sentence. While we do not concede that the appellant is warranted
in drawing the deduction mentioned from the English translation of the caption of article 160, it is clear
that no such deduction could be drawn from the caption. The language is plain and unambiguous. There
is not the slightest intimation in the text of article 160 that said article applies only in cases where the new
offense is different in character from the former offense for which the defendant is serving the penalty.
FLORES VS COMELEC.
-On March 28, 1989, petitioner Roque Flores won the Sangguniang Barangay elections by receiving the
most number of votes for the position of Kagawad as per Sec. 5 of RA 6679, making him the Punong
Banrangay of Tayum, Abra. However, Nobelito Rapisora filed a petition to contest the election of the
petitioner in the Municipal Circuit Trial Court of Tayum for having 2 stray votes that could have made him
the winner of the election. The MCTC then granted the petition of Rapisora, proclaiming him as the
Punong Barangay.
-Flores then filed a petition for review to the Commission on Elections but was then dismissed for they
did not have jurisdiction over the decision of the MCTC as per Sec. 9 of RA 6679.
ISSUES
Whether or not the decision of COMELEC to dismiss the petition for review and acknowledge the decision
of the MCTC valid
SUPREME COURT
COMELEC using the Sec. 9 of RA 6679 for dismissing the petition for review of the Barangay Tayum, Abra
is invalid. Article IX-C, Sec. 2(2) of the Constitution states that the Commission on Elections shall
“Exercise exclusive original jurisdiction over all contests relating to the elections, returns and
qualifications of all elective regional, provincial, and city officials, and appellate jurisdiction over all
contests involving elective municipal officials decided by trial courts of general jurisdiction, or
involving elective barangay officials decided by trial courts of limited jurisdiction.” The MCTC being a court
that have limited jurisdiction, brings the duties for the review of the election to the COMELEC. Sec. 9 of
RA 6679 is then deemed Uncostitutional.