AGAPITO AQUINO V.

COMMISSION ON ELECTIONS, MOVE MAKATI, MATEO BEDON and

JUANITO ICARO

G.R. NO. 120265, SEPTEMBER 18, 1995

KAPUNAN, J.:

POINT OF THE CASE: Petitioner clearly lacks one of the essential qualifications for running for
membership in the House of Representatives, not even the will of a majority or plurality of the voters of
the district would substitute for a requirement mandated by the fundamental law itself.

FACTS: Respondents filed a disqualification case against petitioner alleging that petitioner fell short of
the required residency. Petitioner filed his certificate of candidacy stating that he resided for 10 months in
the second district of Makati where he was running. Later on, he amended his certificate changing the
entry 10 months to one year and thirteen days. Petitioner won in the election. Commission on Election
ordered the Board of Canvassers t suspend the proclamation of petitioner. Later on the COMELEC
declared the petitioner ineligible and thus disqualified as a candidate for the office of representative for
lack of qualification of residency and that it instructed the Board of Canvassers to proclaim as winner out
of the remaining qualified candidates.

ISSUE: Whether or not jurisdiction continued to be vested in the COMELEC to order the Makati Board of
Canvassers to determine and proclaim the winner out of the remaining qualified candidates.

HELD: No. The Senate and the House of Representatives shall have an Electoral Tribunal which shall
be the sole judge of all contests relating to the election, returns and qualifications of their respective
members.The Supreme Court dismissed the petition. Also, it permanently restrained COMELEC from
proclaiming the next highest number of votes in the said congressional elections.

The Court cannot, in another shift of the pendulum, subscribe to the contention that the runner up in an
election in which the winner has been disqualified is actually the winner among the remaining qualified
candidates because this clearly represents a minority view supported only by a scattered number of
obscure American State and English court decisions “By any mathematical formulation, the runner up in
an election cannot be construed to have obtained a majority or plurality of votes cast where an ineligible
candidate has garnered either a majority or plurality of votes.”

In order that petitioner could qualify as a candidate for Representative of the Second District of Makati
City, he must prove that he has established not just residence but domicile of choice.