Consti Lopez vs. Roxas

FERNANDO LOPEZ, petitioner, vs.GERARDO ROXAS and PRESIDENTIAL ELECTORAL TRIBUNAL, respondents.
FACTS: Petitioner Fernando Lopez and respondent Gerardo Roxas were the main contenders for the Office of Vice-President of the Philippines
in the general elections held on November 9, 1965. By Resolution No. 2, approved on December 17, 1965, the two Houses of Congress, in joint
session assembled as the board charged with the duty to canvass the votes then cast for President and Vice President of the Philippines,
proclaimed petitioner Fernando Lopez elected to the latter office with 3,531,550 votes, or a plurality of 26,724 votes over his closest opponent,
respondent Gerardo M. Roxas, in whose favor 3,504,826 votes had been tallied, according to said resolution. On January 5, 1966, respondent
filed, with the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, Election Protest No. 2, contesting the election of petitioner herein as Vice-President of the
Philippines, upon the ground that it was not he, but said respondent, who had obtained the largest number of votes for said office.
On February 22, 1966, petitioner Lopez instituted in the Supreme Court the present original action, for prohibition with preliminary injunction,
against respondent Roxas, to prevent the Presidential Electoral Tribunal from hearing and deciding the aforementioned election contest, upon the
ground that Republic Act No. 1793, creating said Tribunal, is "unconstitutional," and that, "all proceedings taken by it are a nullity."
CONTENTION OF THE PETITIONER:
Petitioner's contention is predicated upon the ground, that the tenure of the President and the Vice-President is fixed by the Constitution and
cannot be abridged by an Act of Congress, like Republic Act No. 1793; that said Act has the effect of amending the Constitution, in that it
permits the Presidential Electoral Tribunal to review the congressional proclamation of the president-elect and the vice-president-elect; that the
constitutional convention had rejected the original plan to include in the Constitution a provision authorizing election contest affecting the
president-elect and the vice-president-elect before an electoral commission; that the people understood the Constitution to authorize election
contests only for Members of Congress, not for President and Vice-President, and, in interpreting the Constitution, the people's intent is
paramount; that it is illegal for Justices of the Supreme Court to sit as members of the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, since the decisions thereof
are appealable to the Supreme Court on questions of law; that the Presidential Electoral Tribunal is a court inferior to the Supreme Court; and that
Congress cannot by legislation appoint in effect the members of the Presidential Electoral Tribunal.
RULING: Section 1 of Republic Act No. 1793, which provides that:
There shall be an independent Presidential Electoral Tribunal ... which shall be the sole judge of all contests relating to the election,
returns, and qualifications of the president-elect and the vice-president-elect of the Philippines.
has the effect of giving said defeated candidate the legal right to contest judicially the election of the President-elect or Vice-President-elect and
to demand a recount of the votes cast for the office involved in the litigation as well as to secure a judgment declaring that he
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is the one elected
president or vice-president, as the case may be,
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and that, as such, he is entitled to assume the duties attached to said office. And by providing,
further, that the Presidential Electoral Tribunal "shall be composed of the Chief Justice and the other ten Members of the Supreme Court," said
legislation has conferred upon such Court an additional original jurisdiction of an exclusive character.
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Republic Act No. 1793 has not created a new or separate court. It has merely conferred upon the Supreme Court the functions of a Presidential
Electoral Tribunal.
Moreover, the power to be the "judge ... of ... contests relating to the election, returns, and qualifications" of any public officer is essentially
judicial. As such under the very principle of separation of powers invoked by petitioner herein it belongs exclusively to the judicial
department, except only insofar as the Constitution provides otherwise. This is precisely the reason why said organic law ordains that "the Senate
and the House of Representatives shall each have an Electoral Tribunal which shall be the sole judge of all contests relating to the election,
returns, and qualifications of their respective Members" (Article VI, Section 11, of the Constitution). In other words, the purpose of this provision
was to exclude the power to decide such contests relating to Members of Congress which by nature is judicial
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from the operation of the
general grant of judicial power
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to "the Supreme Court and such inferior courts as may be established by law.
Instead of indicating that Congress may not enact Republic Act No. 1793, the aforementioned provision of the Constitution, establishing said
Electoral Tribunals for Members of Congress only, proves the exact opposite, namely: that the Constitution intended to vest Congress with
discretion
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to determine by law whether or not the election of a president-elect or that of a vice-president-elect may be contested and, if
Congress should decide in the affirmative, which court of justice shall have jurisdiction to hear the contest. It is, even, debatable whether such
jurisdiction may be conferred, by statute, to a board, commission or tribunal composed partly of Members of Congress and Members of the
Supreme Court because of its possible inconsistency with the constitutional grant of the judicial power to "the Supreme Court and ... such inferior
courts as may be established by law," for said board, commission or tribunal would be neither "the Supreme Court,
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nor, certainly, "such inferior
courts as, may be established by law."
Needless to say, the power of congress to declare who, among the candidates for President and/or Vice-President, has obtained the largest number
of votes, is entirely different in nature from and not inconsistent with the jurisdiction vested in the Presidential Electoral Tribunal by Republic
Act No. 1793. Congress merely acts as a national board of canvassers, charged with the ministerial and executive duty
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to make said declaration,
on the basis of the election returns duly certified by provincial and city boards of canvassers.
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Upon the other hand, the Presidential Electoral
Tribunal has the judicial power to determine whether or not said duly certified election returns have been irregularly made or tampered with, or
reflect the true result of the elections in the areas covered by each, and, if not, to recount the ballots cast, and, incidentally thereto, pass upon the
validity of each ballot or determine whether the same shall be counted, and, in the affirmative, in whose favor, which Congress has power to do.

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FERNANDO LOPEZ, petitioner, vs.GERARDO ROXAS and PRESIDENTIAL ELECTORAL TRIBUNAL, respondents.

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