Romulo B. Macalintal v. Office of the President, et al. — Decision — Official PDF

Decision WM. GR. No. E-08557 second sets the date of the next regular BSKE and every five years thereafter. Its structure mirrors that of Republic Act No. 12232, which the Court sustained. Petitioner’s claim rests on the premise that the 2023 Macalintal guidelines govern Republic Act No. 12326—in other words, that a law which fixes a new term and, as a consequence, sets a later election date is a postponement law. That is the very proposition the Court considered and did not adopt in 2025 Macalintal. However, interim relief must rest on the law as the Court declared it. The doctrine of stare decisis. counsels against treating its holding as though it did not exist. Further, petitioner argues that 2025 Macalintal does not bar his present petition because Republic Act No. 12326 involves a’ different interval, a different effect on the incumbents’ mandate, -different justifications, and an express provision that, in his view, “extends” the terms of incumbents.® He points to Section 5 of Republic Act No. 12326 which states, in part, that “[c]onsidering the extension of their terms by two [I years, incumbent elective barangay officials shall be regarded as having completed one [] term in their respective positions.” Respondents counter that the provision is not an independent source of hold-over authority, but merely a counting rule for purposes of the two-term limit, and that Republic Act No. 12326 retains the same hoid-over provision.cf Republic Act No. 12232 that the Court upheld. These questions are not insignificant, and the Court has resolved them on the merits. 2025 Macalintal itself requires that the period before the new term begins be-reasonable and not unduly long. But it is precisely because these questions are genuinely contested, and because the Court’s most recent pronouncement on a materially similar statute runs against petitioner, that his right cannot be described as clear and unmistakable. When the compiainant’s right or title is doubtful or disputed, he does not have a clear legal right and, therefore, the issuance of injunctive relief is not proper.®” iii. It is not for the Court to replace the wisdom of Congress with its Own as an interruption in the continuity of service for the full ierm {or which the elective official was electe SECTION 2. Section 2 of Republic Aci Ne. 12232 is hereby amended io read as follows: “SEC. 2. Date of Election. ~ The next regular barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections shall be held on the second Monday of November 2028 and every five [] years thereafter.” Omnibus Motion, p. 6. % Comment, p. 39. *1 Incorporators of Mindanac institut. 34 (2012) [Per J. Mendoza, Third D 64 65 ‘hurch of Christ in the Philippines, © 685 Phil. 21,