Jimmy De Castro vs Commission on Elections

written by Howard

G.R. No. 125249 – 335 Phil. 462 – 267 SCRA 806 – Political Law – Law on Public Officers – Election Law; Election Protest Survives the Death of a Party – Public Office is Not Transmissible to Incumbent’s Heir 

In 1995, Jimmy De Castro was proclaimed as the mayor of Gloria, Oriental Mindoro. Amando Medrano was declared as the vice mayor. Later, an election protest was filed against De Castro by his rival candidate, Nicolas Jamilla. While the case was pending, Jamilla died. The trial court then dismissed the election protest on the ground that the death of Jamilla has extinguished the case because the action is personal in nature.

Medrano filed a motion to intervene with reconsideration. The court denied his motion. He then filed a petition for certiorari and mandamus with the Commission on Elections which granted his petition. De Castro opposed the petition as he argues that the action is personal to Jamilla and that Medrano is not a proper party.

ISSUE: Whether or not the election protest case was distinguished when Jamilla, the primary contestant thereto, died.

HELD: No. It is true that a public office is personal to the public officer and is not a property transmissible to his heirs upon death. Thus, applying the doctrine of actio personalis moritur cum persona, upon the death of the incumbent, no heir of his may be allowed to continue holding his office in his place. But nevertheless, an election contest involves both the private interests of the rival candidates and the public interest in the final determination of the real choice of the electorate, and for this reason, an election contest necessarily survives the death of the protestant or the protestee. There is a paramount need to remove the cloud and the uncertainty as to the real choice of the electorate, and this cannot be resolved if the election protest is dismissed simply because a party thereto died.

As regards the issue of whether or Medrano is a proper party, a vice mayor elect has the status of a real party in interest in the continuation of the proceedings and is entitled to intervene therein. For if the protest succeeds and the Protestee is unseated, the Vice-Mayor succeeds to the office of Mayor that becomes vacant if the one duly elected cannot assume the post.

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