P.E.T. Case No. 001 – 323 Phil. 665 – 253 SCRA 559 – Political Law – Constitutional Law – The Executive Department – Presidential Elections – Presidential Electoral Tribunal – Abandonment of Protest
In the 1992 Presidential Elections, Miriam Defensor-Santiago ran against Fidel Ramos. Ramos won the election. Defensor-Santiago filed a protest alleging that there were irregularities. While her protest was pending, she filed her candidacy for the 1995 Senatorial Elections. Defensor-Santiago won and had assumed office in June 1995. Thereafter, the PET directed Defensor-Santiago and Pres. Ramos to submit their respective Memoranda on why the case should not be dismissed for being moot in view of Defensor-Santiago’s election and assumption into office as a Senator.
ISSUE: Whether or not the protest may be dismissed.
HELD: Yes. Defensor-Santiago is deemed to have abandoned her protest when she was elected and had assumed office as a Senator and her subsequent discharge of duties as a Senator. Defensor-Santiago, by campaigning for a senatorial position had promised the electorate that she shall discharge the duties of a Senator when elected. She knew that the term of office of a senator is six years and that it shall commence on June 30 of 1995. Defensor-Santiago, being a lawyer and a former judge, cannot be said to have promised the electorate to serve as Senator subject to the outcome of her protest.
