FIRST DIVISION

G.R. No. 118118 August 14, 1995

ALFREDO GUIEB, petitioner,

DAVIDE, JR., J.:

Revealed in this case is the parties' and the lower court judges' unfamiliarity with or
ignorance of the constitutional provision on the appellate jurisdiction of the Commission on
Elections (COMELEC) in election contests involving elective barangay officials and of the
decision of this Court declaring unconstitutional a provision of law vesting upon Regional
Trial Courts appellate jurisdiction over the said cases.

We find it unnecessary to resolve the issue raised by the petitioner, viz., whether or not a
vote for a candidate for an office to which he did not seek to be elected is valid. We shall,
instead, deal with the validity of the challenged decision.

The antecedents are uncomplicated and uncontroverted.

The petitioner and the private respondent were candidates for the position of Punong
Barangay of Barangay Nilombot, Sta. Barbara, Pangasinan, in the barangay election of 9
May 1994. After the canvass of votes in the said barangay, the former was proclaimed as
the winning candidate. The latter then seasonably filed an election protest with the
Municipal Trial Court (MTC) of Sta. Barbara, Pangasinan.

On 27 May 1994, the MTC, per Judge Lilia C. Espaol, rendered a decision confirming the
proclamation of the petitioner and dismissing the protest of the private respondent. 1

The private respondent appealed the decision to the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Dagupan
City. The case was assigned to Branch 42 thereof.

In its decision 2 of 31 August 1994, the RTC, per respondent Judge Luis M. Fontanilla,
reversed the decision of the MTC, annulled the proclamation of the petitioner, and declared
the private respondent as the winning candidate with a plurality of four votes over the
petitioner.
After the petitioner's motion for reconsideration 3 of the decision was denied 4 on 25
November 1994, the private respondent immediately filed a motion for the issuance of a writ
of execution.

In its order of 8 December 1994, 5 the RTC declared that the motion should be properly filed
with the court of origin and that the decision of 31 August 1994 had already become final; it
then ordered the remand of the records of the case to the MTC of Sta. Barbara,
Pangasinan, for proper disposition.

On 12 December 1994, the petitioner filed with this Court a motion for extension of time to
file a petition for review on certiorari. On 29 December 1994, he sent by registered mail his
petition, which this Court received only on 25 January 1995. It turned out, however, that his
motion for extension of time to file a petition had already been denied on 4 January 1995 for
his failure to submit an affidavit of service of that motion. On 8 February 1995, he filed a
motion for the reconsideration of the denial.

Meanwhile, on 20 December 1994, the private respondent filed with the MTC a motion for
the issuance of a writ of execution. 6

In its order of 19 January 1995, the MTC deferred action on the said motion and required
the petitioner's counsel to inform the court of the status of his petition with this Court. 7 For
failure of the petitioner's counsel to comply with the said order, the court issued an order on
7 February 1995 8 granting the issuance of a writ of execution. On 13 February 1995,
however, the court received the said counsel's Compliance dated 9 February
1995 9 wherein he informed the court of the petitioner's motion to reconsider this Court's
resolution denying the motion for extension of time to file his petition.

In the resolution of 8 February 1995, this Court required the respondent to comment on the
petition.

On 16 February 1995, the petitioner filed with the MTC an Urgent Motion to Stay and/or
Suspend Execution. 10 This motion was, however,
denied 11 on the ground that the writ, having been hand-carried by the private respondent to
the office of the sheriff, must have already been implemented and, therefore, the motion to
stay or suspend the same has become moot and academic.

On 20 March 1995, the sheriff returned the writ of execution with the information that in the
presence of a barangay kagawad and barangay residents, he enforced the writ and
proclaimed the private respondent as Punong Barangay of Barangay Nilombot, Sta.
Barbara, Pangasinan. 12

In view of the issue involved, we resolved to give due course to the petition.
The RTC had absolutely no jurisdiction over the appeal interposed by the private
respondent from the decision of the MTC.

Under paragraph (2), Section 2, subdivision C, Article IX of the Constitution, 13 it is the

The private respondent should have appealed the decision of the MTC to the COMELEC;
the MTC should not have given due course to the appeal; and the RTC should have
dismissed outright the appeal for want of jurisdiction.

In accepting the appeal and deciding the case on its merits, the respondent judge
manifested either ignorance or palpable disregard of the aforesaid constitutional provision
and decision. It must be noted that a judge is presumed to know the constitutional limits of
the authority or jurisdiction of his court. He is called upon to exhibit more than just a cursory
acquaintance with the laws; it is imperative that he be conversant with basic legal
principles. 16 Canon 4 of the Canons of Judicial Ethics requires that a judge should be
"studious of the principles of the law." Thus, if the respondent judge were only aware of the
aforementioned constitutional provision and decision, he would have cut short the journey of
a very simple case and put an end to the litigation. What this Court stated in Aducayen
vs. Flores 17 deserves reiteration:

Nor is this all that has to be said. There is need, it does seem, to caution anew
judges of inferior courts, which according to the Constitution refer to all those outside
this Tribunal, to exercise greater care in the discharge of their judicial functions.
They are called upon to exhibit more than just a cursory acquaintance with statutes
and procedural rules. Moreover, while it becomes hourly difficult to keep abreast of
our ever-increasing decisions, a modicum of effort should be exerted by them not to
lag too far behind. Nor is it too much to expect that they betray awareness of well-
settled and authoritative doctrines. If such were the case, then resort to us would be
less frequent. That way our time could be devoted to questions of greater
significance. Not only that, there would be on the part of party litigants less expense
and greater faith in the administration of justice, if there be a belief on their part that
the occupants of the bench cannot justly be accused of an apparent deficiency in
their grasp of legal principles. Such an indictment unfortunately cannot just be
dismissed as a manifestation of chronic fault-finding. The situation thus calls for a
more conscientious and diligent approach to the discharge of judicial functions to
avoid the imputation that there is on the part of a number of judges less than full and
adequate comprehension of the law.
WHEREFORE, the instant petition is GRANTED. The challenged decision of 31 August
1994 of Branch 42 of the Regional Trial Court of Dagupan City and its order of 25
November 1994 denying the petitioner's motion for reconsideration are hereby SET ASIDE
and ANNULLED for lack of jurisdiction on the part of the said court to entertain and decide
the appeal. The decision of 27 May 1994 of the Municipal Trial Court of Sta. Barbara,
Pangasinan, is hereby declared final for failure of the private respondent to appeal the same
before the proper forum, and the writ of execution to enforce the decision of the Regional
Trial Court is hereby SET ASIDE and ANNULLED.

Costs against the private respondent.

SO ORDERED.

Padilla, Bellosillo, Kapunan and Hermosisima, Jr., JJ., concur.

Footnotes

1 Annex "1" of Comment; Rollo, 91.

2 Annex "2," Id.; Id., 95.

3 Annex "3," Id.; Id., 102.

4 Annex "5," Id.; Id., 113.

5 Annex "6" of Comment; Rollo, 117.

6 Annex "9," Id.; Id., 122.

7 Annex "10," Id.; Id., 123.

8 Annex "11," Id.; Id., 124.

9 Annex "14" of Comment; Rollo, 127.

10 Annex "16," Id.; Id., 133.

11 Annex "17, " Id.; Id., 135.

12 Annex "13," Id.; Id., 126.

13 It provides:

Sec. 2 The Commission on Elections shall exercise the following powers and functions:
 xxx xxx xxx

(2) Exercise exclusive . . . 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.

14 Record of the Constitutional Commission, vol. 1, 644.

15 184 SCRA 484 [1990].

16 Estoya vs. Abraham-Singson, 237 SCRA 1 [1994], citing several cases.

17 51 SCRA 78, 83 [1973].