G.R. No. 103702 - Municipality of San Narciso, Quezon v. Mendez, SR
G.R. No. 103702 - Municipality of San Narciso, Quezon v. Mendez, SR
DECISION
VITUG, J :
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Executive Order No. 353 was issued upon the request, addressed to
the President and coursed through the Provincial Board of Quezon, of the
municipal council of San Narciso, Quezon, in its Resolution No. 8 of 24
May 1959. 1
By virtue of Executive Order No. 174, dated 05 October 1965, issued
by President Diosdado Macapagal, the municipal district of San Andres
was later officially recognized to have gained the status of a fifth class
municipality beginning 01 July 1963 by operation of Section 2 of Republic
Act No. 1515. 2 The executive order added that "(t)he conversion of this
municipal district into (a) municipality as proposed in House Bill No. 4864
was approved by the House of Representatives."
On 05 June 1989, the Municipality of San Narciso filed a petition for
quo warranto with the Regional Trial Court, Branch 62, in Gumaca,
Quezon, against the officials of the Municipality of San Andres. Docketed
Special Civil Action No. 2014-G, the petition sought the declaration of
nullity of Executive Order No. 353 and prayed that the respondent local
officials of the Municipality of San Andres be permanently ordered to
refrain from performing the duties and functions of their respective offices.
3 Invoking the ruling of this Court in Pelaez v. Auditor General, 4 the
While petitioners would grant that the enactment of Republic Act No.
7160 may have converted the Municipality of San Andres into a de facto
municipality, they, however, contend that since the petition for quo warranto
had been filed prior to the passage of said law, petitioner municipality had
acquired a vested right to seek the nullification of Executive Order No. 353,
and any attempt to apply Section 442 of Republic Act 7160 to the petition
would perforce be violative of due process and the equal protection clause
of the Constitution.
Petitioners' theory might perhaps be a point to consider had the case
been seasonably brought. Executive Order No. 353 creating the municipal
district of San Andres was issued on 20 August 1959 but it was only after
almost thirty (30) years, or on 05 June 1989, that the municipality of San
Narciso finally decided to challenge the legality of the executive order. In
the meantime, the Municipal District, and later the Municipality, of San
Andres, began and continued to exercise the powers and authority of a
duly created local government unit. In the same manner that the failure of
a public officer to question his ouster or the right of another to hold a
position within one-year period can abrogate an action belatedly filed, 19 so
also, if not indeed with greatest imperativeness, must a quo warranto
proceeding assailing the lawful authority of a political subdivision be timely
raised. 20 Public interest demands it.
Granting the Executive Order No. 353 was a complete nullity for
being the result of an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power, the
peculiar circumstances obtaining in this case hardly could offer a choice
other than to consider the Municipality of San Andres to have at least
attained a status uniquely of its own closely approximating, if not in fact
attaining, that of a de facto municipal corporation. Conventional wisdom
cannot allow it to be otherwise. Created in 1959 by virtue of Executive
Order No. 353, the Municipality of San Andres had been in existence for
more than six years when, on 24 December 1965, Pelaez v. Auditor
General was promulgated. The ruling could have sounded the call for a
similar declaration of the unconstitutionality of Executive Order No. 353 but
it was not to be the case. On the contrary, certain governmental acts all
pointed to the State's recognition of the continued existence of the
Municipality of San Andres. Thus, after more than five years as a municipal
district, Executive Order No. 174 classified the Municipality of San Andres
as a fifth class municipality after having surpassed the income requirement
laid out in Republic Act No. 1515. Section 31 of Batas Pambansa Blg. 129,
otherwise known as the Judiciary Reorganization Act of 1980, constituted
as municipal circuits, in the establishment of Municipal Circuit Trial Courts
in the country, certain municipalities that comprised the municipal circuits
organized under Administrative Order No. 33, dated 13 June 1978, issued
by this Court pursuant to Presidential Decree No. 537. Under this
administrative order, the Municipality of San Andres had been covered by
the 10th Municipal Circuit Court of San Francisco-San Andres for the
province of Quezon. Cdpr
Footnotes