Kristle-Liz I.

dela Cruz Civil Procedure

LLB-2 March 22, 2014

ALCANTARA V COMELEC

G.R. No. 203646 APRIL 16, 2013

FACTS:

Petitioners are members of ABAKADA Guro Partylist. In May

2007 election ABAKADA participated and won a seat, Jonathan dela
Cruz , its first nominee become the partys sole representative in the
Congress.

Petitioners filed a petition with the COMELEC when the

respondents proceeded to hold a Supreme Assembly that resulted to
the approval and ratification of the revised ABAKADA CBL and the
ouster and expulsion of petitioners from their positions and to the
party.

Petitioners in their petition alleged that the meeting held was

void for the holding of the said Supreme Assembly(SA) were contrary
to the CBL for not having been authorized by the president and the
partys National Executive Board. And Alcantara has no authority to
send communication since he is not the secretary.

Respondent defended the validity of the meeting contending

that Dela Cruz made several communications to Alcantara to urge
him to call for SA.

COMELEC dismissed the petition and ruled that the

respondents had good cause to initiate the holding of the meeting.
Petitioners moved for reconsideration of the ruling, questioning the
Divisions failure to address the issue of validity of SA based on the
non-membership status of the several meetings participants.
COMELEC En Banc denied the motion. Hence, an appeal.

ISSUE:

Whether or not the Supreme Assembly is void for it not

convened in accordance with party`s CBL.
Kristle-Liz I. dela Cruz Civil Procedure
LLB-2 March 22, 2014

HELD:

The Supreme Assembly is valid. As the COMELEC correctly

observed, ABAKADA`s constitution expressly requires the convening
of SA once every three years for the purposes of electing the
members of National Executive Board-the governing body of
ABAKADA-headed by petitioner Alcantara. In contravention of the
ABAKADA`s own constitution, no SA was ever held since the
ABAKADA came into existence in 2003, prompting the respondents
to communicate with the petitioner to call for and assemble the
leaders. This call, was in fact a practical approach to a coming
political exercise.

The petition is dismissed for failure of the petitioner to establish

grave abuse of discretion on the part of COMELEC, this Court can do
no less than to dismiss the petition and allow the ABAKADA as
sectoral party to determine its own affairs under its present
leadership.