"At the outset, the Court notes that the petition was filed out of time. Petitioners confused Rules 64 and 65 of the Rules of Court when they erroneously claimed that their petition was timely filed within 60 days from notice of judgment.33 Rule 64 provides:
SECTION 1. Scope. This Rule shall govern the review of judgments and final orders or resolutions of the Commission on Elections and the Commission on Audit.
SEC. 2. Mode of review. A judgment or final order or resolution of the Commission on Elections and the Commission on Audit may be brought by the aggrieved party to the Supreme Court on certiorari under Rule 65, except as hereinafter provided.
SEC. 3. Time to file petition. The petition shall be filed within thirty (30) days from notice of the judgment or final order or resolution sought to be reviewed. The filing of a motion for new trial or reconsideration of said judgment or final order or resolution, if allowed under the procedural rules of the Commission concerned, shall interrupt the period herein fixed. If the motion is denied, the aggrieved party may file the petition within the remaining period, but which shall not be less than five (5) days in any event, reckoned from notice of denial. (Underscoring supplied)
As gleaned from above, Rule 65 applies to petitions questioning the judgments, final orders, or resolutions of the COA only insofar as Rule 64 does not specifically provide the rules. Consequently, since Rule 64 explicitly provides the 30-day period for the filing of the petition, the same shall apply - not the 60-day period provided in Rule 65.
To recall, the COA Decision was promulgated on December 27, 2017 and petitioners received a copy of the Decision on February 23, 2018. Thus, the 30 day-period began to run from February 23, 2018. However, following Section 3, Rule 64 the period was interrupted when petitioners filed an MR on February 28, 2018. Petitioners received a copy of the Resolution denying their MR on November 12, 2018. Consequently, they had 25 days from November 12, or until December 7, 2018 to file their petition before the Court. However, petitioners only filed their petition on January 11, 2019 or 35 days after the last day of filing.
From the foregoing, there is no dispute that petitioners belatedly filed their petition before the Court. Nevertheless, the petition appears to be partly meritorious. Time and again, the Court has relaxed the observance of procedural rules to advance substantial justice.34 Moreover, the present petition provides an appropriate avenue for the Court to settle the conflicting jurisprudence on the liability for the refund of disallowed allowances. Thus, the Court opts for a liberal application of the procedural rules considering that the substantial merits of the case warrant its review by the Court.
The Constitution vests the broadest latitude in the COA in discharging its role as the guardian of public funds and properties.35 In recognition of such constitutional empowerment, the Court has generally sustained the COA's decisions or resolutions in deference to its expertise in the implementation of the laws it has been entrusted to enforce.36 Thus, the Constitution and the Rules of Court provide the remedy of a petition for certiorari in order to restrict the scope of inquiry to errors of jurisdiction or to grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction committed by the COA.37 For this purpose, grave abuse of discretion means that there is, on the part of the COA, an evasion of a positive duty or a virtual refusal to perform a duty enjoined by law or to act in contemplation of law, such as when the assailed decision or resolution rendered is not based on law and the evidence but on caprice, whim and despotism.38
In this case, petitioners failed to show that the COA gravely abused its discretion in affirming the subject NDs. Nevertheless, there is merit to their contention that they should not be held liable to refund the dis allowed amounts."
EN BANC
G.R. No. 244128, September 08, 2020
MARIO M. MADERA, BEVERLY C. MANANGUITE, CARISSA D. GALING, AND JOSEFINA O. PELO, PETITIONERS, VS. COMMISSION ON AUDIT (COA) AND COA REGIONAL OFFICE NO. VIII, RESPONDENTS.
https://lawphil.net/judjuris/juri2020/sep2020/gr_244128_2020.html
