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Angelia Vs Comelec
Angelia Vs Comelec
FACTS:
* Petitioner Angelia and Private respondent Tan were candidates for the position of member of
Sangguniang Bayan of Leyte during the May 1998 elections.
* After canvass of votes: Angelia ranked 8th (4 votes ahead of Tan who ranked 9th)
* Tan filed a petition for quo warranto with RTC against Angelia. He alleged that in Precinct No.
84 A and 84 A1, he was credited with only 82 votes, when he actually obtained 92. In precinct
No 23A, Angelia was credited with 18 votes, when he actually garnered only 13. Therefore,
according to Tan, he received a total of 7771 votes, as to Angelias 7760 votes.
* June 12, 1998 Angelia took his oath and assumed office
* June 23, 1998 Tan filed a motion to withdraw his petition. Subsequently, he filed petition for
annulment of proclamation of petitioner with Comelec. He presented several pieces of evidence,
including Election Returns, affidavit of poll clerk (stating that she inadvertently entered only 82
votes instead of 92 for Tan), and affidavit of another poll clerk (indicated 18 instead of 13 as
total votes for Angelia). Tan also submitted affidavit of Matugas, chairperson of BEI of Precinct
84 A and A1, corroborating the affidavit of Duavis.
* Comelec annulled the proclamation of petitioner (Aug 18, 1998) Commission en Banc hereby
annuls the proclamation of Angelia, the same being based on an erroneous tally and directs the
municipal board of canvassers to effect the corrections in the total number of votes received.. and
thereafter PROCLAIM the winning candidate for Municipal Kagawad based on the corrected
results.
* Angelia filed a motion for reconsideration, alleging that he was not given due notice and
hearing.
* Without waiting for the resolution of his motion, he filed the instant petition for certiorari,
assignment of error: Comelec gravely erred and violated petitioners constitutional right to due
process when it passed the Aug 18, 1998 resolution, annulling his proclamation and reconvening
the Municipal Board of Canvassers without prior notice and hearing.
* @Resp: instant petition should be dismissed for being premature. Petitioner has a pending
motion for recon.
ISSUE: W/N the instant petition for certiorari is premature for having been filed while a motion
for reconsideration is pending NO
HELD:
Petitioner acted correctly in filing the present petition because the resolution of the Comelec in
question is not subject to reconsideration and, therefore, any party who disagreed with it had
only one recourse: file a petition for certiorari under Rule 65 of Rules of Civil Procedure.
As the case did not involve an election offense, reconsideration of the Comelec resolution was
NOT POSSIBLE and petitioner had no appeal or any adequate remedy. For him to wait until
Comelec denied his motion would be to allow the reglementary period for filing a petition
for certiorari with this Court to run and expire.
Comelec contends that petitioner should not have speculated on the outcome of his M4R, which
he has not formally withdrawn. True, it would have been more appropriate for petitioner to
withdraw. BUT, the filing of petitioner of the instant petition sufficiently indicated his
intention to abandon his motion for reconsideration.