Facts:
Jose T. Capco, Jr., was
elected as Vice-Mayor of Pateros on January 18, 1988 for a term ending on June
30, 1992. On September 2, 1989, Capco became Mayor, by operation of law, upon
the death of the incumbent, Cesar Borja. Thereafter, Capco was elected and
served as Mayor for two more terms, from 1992 to 1998.
On March 27, 1998, Capco
filed a Certificate of Candidacy for Mayor of Pateros in the May 11, 1998
elections. Petitioner Benjamin U. Borja, Jr., who was
also a candidate for mayor, sought Capco’s disqualification on the ground that Capco would have already served as Mayor for 3
consecutive terms by June 30, 1998; hence, he would be ineligible to serve for
another term.
The Second Division of the
COMELEC ruled in favor of Borja and declared Capco disqualified but the COMELEC
en banc reversed the decision and declared Capco eligible to run for mayor.
Capco was subsequently voted and
proclaimed as mayor.
Issue:
Whether or not a vice-mayor who
succeeds to the office of mayor by operation of law and serves the remainder of
the term is considered to have served a term in
that office for the purpose of the three-term limit.
Held:
No. The term limit for elective
local officials must be taken to refer to the right to be elected as
well as the right to serve the same elective position. Consequently, it
is not enough that an individual has served three consecutive terms in an
elective local office, he must also have been elected to the same position for
the same number of times before the disqualification can apply. Capco was
qualified to run again as mayor in the next election because he was not elected
to the office of mayor in the first term but simply found himself thrust into
it by operation of law. Neither had he served the full term because he only
continued the service, interrupted by the death, of the deceased mayor. The
vice-mayor’s assumption of the mayorship in the event of the vacancy is more a
matter of chance than of design. Hence, his service in that office should not
be counted in the application of any term limit.
● The policy embodied in the constitutional
provision (Art. X, §8) is not only to prevent the establishment of political
dynasties but also to enhance the freedom of choice of the people. A
consideration of the historical background of Art. X, §8 of the Constitution
reveals that the members of the Constitutional Commission were as much
concerned with preserving the freedom of choice of the people as they were with preventing the monopolization of
political power. In discussing term limits, the drafters of the Constitution
did so on the assumption that the
officials concerned were serving by reason of election.
To consider Capco to have served
the first term in full and therefore ineligible to run a third time for
reelection would be not only to falsify reality but also to unduly restrict the
right of the people to choose whom they wish to govern them. (
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