Daza v.

Singson

Summary Cases:

● Daza vs. Singson 180 SCRA 496

Subject: Art VI, Sec 18. (proportional representation in the Commission on

Appointments)

Facts:

After the May 1987 congressional elections, the House of Representatives

proportionally apportioned its
twelve seats in the Commission on Appointments (CA) among the several political
parties represented in
that chamber, in accordance with Article VI, Section 18 of the Constitution.
Petitioner Raul A. Daza, from
the Liberal Party (LP), was among those chosen to sit in the CA.

Due to a subsequent reorganization in the membership of the political parties (24

members of the LP
joined the LDP giving it a memebership of 159 and reducing LP to only 17 members),
the House revised
its membership in the CA by removing the seat of Daza (LP) and giving it to Luis
Singson (LDP).

Daza claims that he cannot be removed from the CA because his election thereto is
permanent under
the doctrine announced in Cunanan v. Tan and that that LDP is not the permanent
political party
contemplated in the Constitution because it is not a duly registered political
party. Singson claims that
the issue is political in nature and beyond the province of the courts.

Held:

Political question

1. The issue presented is not a political question because what is involved here is
the legality, not the
wisdom, of the act of the House of Representatives in removing Daza from the
Commission on
Appointments.

2. Moreover, the expanded jurisdiction conferred upon the judiciary under Article
VIII, Section 1, of the
Constitution now covers, in proper cases, even the political question.

Commission on Appointments- proportional representation

3. Art VI, Sec. 18 provides that "there shall be a Commission on Appointments

consisting of 12 Senators
and 12 members of the House of Representatives elected by each House, respectively,
on the basis of
proportional representation of the political parties therein,"

4. Consequently, each House of Congres may take appropriate measures, not only upon
the initial
organization of the Commission, but also, subsequently thereto.

5. The House of Representatives has authority to change its representation in the

Commission on
Appointments to reflect at any time the changes that may transpire in the political
alignments of its
membership. It is understood that such changes must be permanent and do not include
the temporary
alliances or factional divisions not involving severance of political loyalties or
formal disaffiliation and
permanent shifts of allegiance from one political party to another.

| Page 1 of 1