Rule of Succession ---SBM Balite
“ The Rule Applies to All, Otherwise None At All!”.
Honorable Presiding Officer, my dear colleagues, friends, ladies and gentlemen!
Memorandum Order No. 57, series of 2019 dated October 14, 2019 from the Office of the Vice-Governor and signed by Rene Lopez Relampagos addressed to the Hon. Ricky U. Masamayor with the subject, ‘Designation as O.I.C. in the Vice-Governor’s Office, has this content, and I quote:
“In view of my assumption as Acting Governor of our province due to the travel of Governor Arthur C. Yap to the People’s Republic of China on October 13-18, 2019 to attend to the 2019 Board Working Meeting of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA), you are hereby designated as O.I.C. in the Office of the Vice-Governor, until such time that the President through the SILG or the OIC-DILG, have designated an acting Provincial Vice-Governor pursuant to DILG Memorandum Circular No. 2019-21.
As such, you are hereby requested to call the session on October 15, 2019 in order, so the August Body of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan may then proceed to elect its
Temporary Presiding Officer in accordance with Rule 2.3 of its Internal Rules of Procedure.
For your information and proper guidance.”
Copies of the said memorandum were furnished to Hon. Governor Arthur C. Yap, SP Secretary Bonifacio Quirog, Jr., Ms. Joseth Celocia of the Provincial Accounting Office, Mr. Peter Ross Retutal of the Provincial Budget Office, and Mr. Eustaquio Socorin of the Provincial Treasury Office.
DILG Legal Opinon No. 22 s. 2012 dated Mar 7, 2012 penned by Jesus B. Doque IV, Director III and addressed to Hon. Diosdado A. Cunanan, First City Councilor of Malabon City in Metro Manila had this ruling on his query on whether the highest ranking member of the Sangguniang Panlungsod can immediately take over and perform the functions and duties of the Vice-Mayor as a result of the exercise of the powers and performance of the duties and functions of Mayor by the Vice-Mayor on the account of the indefinite leave of absence of the elected Mayor due to illness.
In the said Ruling, the DILG answered in the affirmative with the following explanation, and I quote, to wit:
“The exercise of the powers and performance of the duties and functions of the Mayor by the Vice-mayor during the time when the former is temporarily incapacitated to do the same creates a corresponding temporary vacancy in the latter’s office during such contingency which may be paralleled to the case of GAMBOA VS. AGUIRRE (G.R. No. 134213, July 20, 1999), which discusses the effects of vacancy in the Office of the Governor, viz:
“It has been held that if a Mayor who is out of the country is considered ‘effectively absent’, the Vice-Mayor should discharge the duties of the Mayor during the latter’s absence. This doctrine should equally apply to the Vice-Governor since he is similarly situated as the Vice-Mayor. Although it is difficult to lay down a definite rule as to what constitutes absence, yet this term should be reasonably construed to mean “effective absence” that is, one that renders the officer concerned powerless, for the time being, to discharge the powers and prerogatives of his office. There is no vacancy whenever the office is occupied by a legally qualified incumbent. A sensu contrario, there is a vacancy when there is no person lawfully authorized to assume and exercise at present the duties of the office. By virtue of the foregoing definition, it can be said that the designation, appointment or assumption by the Vice-Governor as the Acting Governor creates a corresponding temporary vacancy in the Office of the Vice-Governor during such contingency. Considering the silence of the law on the matter, the mode of succession provided for permanent vacancies, under the New Code, in the Office of the Vice-Governor may likewise be observed in the event of temporary vacancy occurring in the same office. This is so because in the eyes of the law, the office to which he was elected was left barren of a legally qualified person to exercise the duties of the Office of the Vice-Governor.
Being the Acting Governor, the Vice-Governor cannot continue to simultaneously exercise the duties of the latter office, since the nature of the duties of the Provincial Governor call for a full-time occupant to discharge them. Such is not only consistent with but also appears to be the clear rationale of the New Code wherein the policy of performing dual functions in both offices has already been abandoned. To repeat, the creation of a temporary vacancy in the Office of the Governor creates a temporary vacancy in the Office of the Vice-Governor whenever the latter acts as Governor by virtue of such temporary vacancy. This event constitutes an “inability” on the part of the regular Presiding Officer (Vice-Governor) to preside during SP sessions, which thus calls for the operation of the remedy set in Article 49(b) of the Local Government
Code – concerning the election of a Temporary Presiding Officer. The continuity of the Acting Governor’s (Vice-Governor) powers as Presiding Officer of the SP is suspended so long as he is in such capacity. Under Section 49(b), “(i)in the event of the inability of the regular Presiding Officer to preside at the Sanggunian session, the members present and constituting a quorum shall elect from among themselves a temporary Presiding Officer.”
This now leads to the application of the case of Menzon vs. Petilla (G.R. No. 90762, May 20 1991), where the Supreme Court ruled that to obviate the dilemma resulting from an interregnum created by the temporary vacancy in the Office of the Vice-Governor, there being no provision of law governing the mode of succession in case of a temporary vacancy in the said office, the mode of succession for permanent vacancy in the Office of the Vice-Governor may be analogously applied. Accordingly, the highest ranking Sanggunian member shall now assume temporarily as Acting Vice-Mayor.
Applying the Menzon case at hand, while the Vice-Mayor is the Acting Mayor, you (as the highest ranking Sangguniang Panlungsod member) are authorized by law to automatically exercise the powers and perform the duties and functions of the Vice-Mayor also in Acting capacity and no order/authorization from the Department is necessary to make such assumption effective.
While acting as Acting Vice-Mayor, you can perform all the duties and powers pertaining to the Office of the Vice-Mayor. Let it be noted however that the Presiding Officership function is not automatically given to you in view of the ruling of the Supreme Court in the case of GAMBOA VS. AGUIRRE stating that the issue of the Presiding Officership in this kind of situation be resolved by applying Section 49(b) of the Local Government Code, in which case, the majority of those present members there being a quorum shall elect from among themselves the temporary Presiding Officer for that session.”
Mr. Presiding Officer, the law and the legal opinion that I aforementioned are very clear as the sun rises on the east insofar as the rule of succession in this very August Chamber is concerned.
I can even surely remember, without fear of contradiction, that during my first term as a legislator in this August Chamber, all the time when the Vice-Governor relinquished his position for whatever reason or reasons, automatically he minced no words in designating the Senior Board Member to perform the duties and functions of the Vice-Governor. But this time, it’s no more.
Thus, this leads to my query as to what is the difference on the treatment and application of the law and rules of the previous administration as against the current administration.
I remember an adage that goes this way and I quote, “The rule applies to all, otherwise none at all.”
With this Mr. Presiding Officer, may I then demand that a formal ruling from this August Body, in the form of a Resolution, be enacted as to what role does the Senior Board Member possesses insofar as succession in this August Chamber is concerned.
So moved, Mr. Presiding Officer!
Thank you very much!
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