[ G.R. No. L-1925. January 25, 1949 ] G.R. No. L-1925
[ G.R. No. L-1925. January 25, 1949 ]
FLAVIANO MEJIA, TEOFILO P. GUADIZ, RUPERTO Z. TANDOC Y POLICRONIO DE VENECIA, PETITIONERS, VS. PEDRO U. BALOLONG, RICARDO VILLAMIL, TORIBIO QUIMOSONG Y CRISOLOGO ZARATE, RESPONDENTS. RESOLUTION
FERIA, J.:
The motion for reconsideration and the dissenting opinions are predicated on an erroneous premise or confusion of the creation or existence of a municipal corporation, be it called city or municipality, with the functioning thereof through the officers provided or designated by law to represent or act for said corporation. If the corning into existence of a juridical entity, such as a city or municipality, and the organization of the government thereof and appointment or election of its officers are one and the same thing, it would not have necessary for Sec. 2168 of the administrative Code to provide as a legal fiction that “Where provision is made for the creation or organization of a new municipality, it shall come into existence as a separate corporate body upon the qualification of the president, vice-president, and a majority of the councilors, unless some other time be fixed therefor by law.” And the law could not fix some other time for its coming into existence, different from the organization of its government or appointment and qualification of its officers. That Congress has expressly fixed the date for the creation or coming into existence of the City of Dagupan in the Republic Act No. 170, that is the date said Act became effective or was approved on June 20, 1947, is evident. Because Sec. 1 of said Act provides that “The City of Dagupan which is hereby created shall comprise the present territorial jurisdiction of Dagupan, Pangasinan,” and according to section 90 of the same act, shall take effect upon its approval on June 20 of 1947. (underline ours) And because the President is not authorized to create the City of Dagupan, but only to fix, by Proclamation, the organization of the government of the City, and appoint the officers thereof, the Major and the members of the City Council, if the government of the City is organized before the next general elections for provincial and municipal officials on November 1947, in which the councilors of the City were to be elected or appoint only the Mayor if the organization is mace after tho said elections. The government of the city could not be organized and its officers appointed or elected before the city had been created or come into existence, for it would be absurd to elect or appoint the officers of a public or private corporation or any other entity which does not yet exist. A juridical institution or entity can not act as such, but it may exist, before the officers provided bylaw to represent and act in its behalf or representation has been appointed or elected. A court of justice or a municipal corporation exist or comes into existence from the moment the law creating or establishing it becomes in force or effective, but it can not act as such court or municipal corporation before the judge to preside the former, or the municipal officers have been elected or appointed and have qualified. So the City of Dagupan comprising the territory of the Municipality of Dagupan came into existence from the date Act No. 170, which created it was approved and became effective, although it could not act or function as such city before the government thereof had been organized or the city officers had been elected or appointed and had qualified. After Act No. 170 which created the City of Dagupan took effect, and before the organization of the government of the City of Dagupan, the political subdivision which comprises the territory of the Municipality of Dagupan has continued to act as municipality, because the government of the city had not yet been organized and the officers thereof appointed or elected. The conversion of that municipality into a city by the above mentioned Act No. 170 did not make ipso facto the acts of the elected officers of the said municipality acts of the City of Dagupan, because the latter can only act as a city through the city officers designated by law after they have been appointed or elected and have qualified. In the meantime or during the period of transition tho municipality of Dagupan had to act or function temporarily as such; otherwise there would be chaos or no government at all within the boundaries of the territory. The status of the municipality of Dagupan may be likened to that of a public officer who can not abandon his office although his successor has already been appointed and has to continue in office whatever the length of time of the interregnum, until his successor qualified, or takes possession of the office. We can not take into consideration and discuss the contention in the motion for reconsideration that during the last general election for municipal officers, there were also candidates for the position of Mayor, Vice-Mayor or councilors of the Municipality of Dagupan because there was no allegation to that effect in the verified pleading, of the parties, petition of the petitioners and answer of the respondents, evidencing such fact. It was mentioned for the first time in the memorandum filed by the respondents. This Court can not predicate its conclusion on facts not alleged and admitted in the pleadings or proven during the hearing of the case. But even assuming it to be true, the erroneous filing or such certificates of candidacy can not change the law or vitiate the election of the petitioners as councilors of the City of Dagupan. The only fact that appears in the petition and can be considered as true because not denied but admitted in the answer is that the petitioners have presented their certificates of candidacy as candidates for the positions of councilors of the City of Dagupan. The case of the City of Dansalan is a very different from the case at bar. The City of Dagupan was created directly by Act No. 170, which provides in its Sec. 2 that the city is thereby created, and therefore became a city from the date the said act took effect or approved on June 20, 1947. While Act No. 592 does not contain, expressly or impliedly, similar provision as it only provides for the charter of the City of Dansalan, which would come into existence only upon the organization of the government of the city by the appointment of the City Mayor and the majority sf the members of the city council by the President, because the law creating it does not provide otherwise, that is, it does not fix the time of its creation different from that of the organization of its government or appointment and election of its officers, as in the case at bar. Sec. 2168 of the Administrative Code, applicable by analogy, provides that “Where provision is made for the creation or organization of a new municipality, it shall come into existence as a separate corporate body upon the qualification of the president, vice-president, and a majority of the councilors, unless some other time be fixed therefore by law.” (underline ours) Having come to the conclusion that the City of Dagupan was created and came into existence on June 20, 1947, it follows that the phrase “pending the next general elections for provincial and municipal officials” in Sec. 88 of Act No. 170, must be construed to refer to the general election for provincial and municipal officials in November 1947, which was the next one after the creation or coming into existence of the City of Dagupan on June 20, 1947, and not any general election for provincial or municipal officials after the organization of the government of the city of Dagupan by Presidential Proclamation, for the following reasons: First, because Sec. 11 of said Act No. 170 expressly provides that the “municipal councilors of the city of Dagupan shall be elected during every general election for provincial and municipal officials in accordance with the Election Code,” and according to Sec. 7 of the Election Code, “When a new political division is created, the inhabitants of which are entitled to participate in the elections, the elective officers thereof shall, unless otherwise provided, be chosen at the next general election” (underline ours). And there is nothing in Act No. 170 which provides otherwise. On the contrary said Act follows the general provision of Sec. 7 of the Election Code, with the modification that the President is authorized only to appoint the elective officers pending the election, and not to order a special election of such officers, taking into consideration the short time intervening between the reaction of the City on June 20, and the election of its officers ran November, 1947, and their qualification on January 1, 1948. Secondly, Sec. 88 of Act No. 170, provides that the city government of Dagupan “shall be organized on such a date as may be fixed by the President of the Philippines, and upon qualification of the city Mayor and the appointment or election of the members of the Municipal Board.” To hold that the next general elections to which the law refers are those to be held after the date of the organization of the City Government, set by the President, would make the alternative provision, “or election of the members of the Municipal Board,” nugatory of superfluous, because on the date set for the organization of the Government of the City of Dagupan, there would never be members of the Municipal Board elected. And, finally, because to construe that the next general election for provincial or municipal officers, refers to the general election next or after the organization of the government of the City by Presidential Proclamation, would be to grant the latter discretion to defeat the purpose of the law or the creation of the City of Dagupan by Congress, because as Act No. 170 does not fix the time within which the President should proclaim the organization of the government of the City, the President may never fix the date of such organization which is untenable. Motion for reconsideration is denied. Moran, Perfecto, Briones, Tuason, and Reyes, JJ., concur. Feria, J., concurro con eta disidencica.