Validity of Resignation from public office -
"The petitioner submits that the resignation of private respondent was valid and effective despite the absence of an express acceptance by the President of the Philippines. The letter of resignation was submitted to the secretary of the DILG, an alter ego of the President, the appointing authority. The acceptance of respondents resignation may be inferred from the fact that the DILG secretary himself appointed him a member of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Catanduanes.[27]
In Ortiz vs. COMELEC,[28] we defined resignation as the act of giving up or the act of an officer by which he declines his office and renounces the further right to use it. It is an expression of the incumbent in some form, express or implied, of the intention to surrender, renounce, and relinquish the office and the acceptance by competent and lawful authority. To constitute a complete and operative resignation from public office, there must be: (a) an intention to relinquish a part of the term; (b) an act of relinquishment; and (c) an acceptance by the proper authority.[29] The last one is required by reason of Article 238 of the Revised Penal Code.[30]
The records are bereft of any evidence that private respondents resignation was accepted by the proper authority. From the time that he was elected as punong barangay up to the time he resigned as a member of Sangguniang Bayan, the governing law was B.P. 337 or the Local Government Code of 1983. While said law was silent as to who specifically should accept the resignation of an appointive member of the Sangguniang Bayan, Sec. 6 of Rule XIX of its implementing rules states that the [r]esignation of sanggunian members shall be acted upon by the sanggunian concerned, and a copy of the action taken shall be furnished the official responsible for appointing a replacement and the Ministry of Local Government. The position shall be deemed vacated only upon acceptance of the resignation.
It is not disputed that private respondents resignation letter was addressed only to the municipal mayor of San Andres, Catanduanes. It is indicated thereon that copies were furnished the provincial governor, the municipal treasurer and the DILG. Neither the mayor nor the officers who had been furnished copies of said letter expressly acted on it. On hindsight, and assuming arguendo that the aforecited Sec. 6 of Rule XIX is valid and applicable, the mayor should have referred or endorsed the latter to the Sangguniang Bayan for proper action. In any event, there is no evidence that the resignation was accepted by any government functionary or office.
Parenthetically, Section 146 of B.P. Blg. 337 states:
Sec. 146. Composition. - (1) The sangguniang bayan shall be the legislative body of the municipality and shall be composed of the municipal mayor, who shall be the presiding officer, the vice-mayor, who shall be the presiding officer pro tempore, eight members elected at large, and the members appointed by the President consisting of the president of the katipunang bayan and the president of the kabataang barangay municipal federation. x x x. (Emphasis supplied.)
Under established jurisprudence, resignations, in the absence of statutory provisions as to whom they should be submitted, should be tendered to the appointing person or body.[31] Private respondent, therefore, should have submitted his letter of resignation to the President or to his alter ego, the DILG secretary. Although he supposedly furnished the latter a copy of his letter, there is no showing that it was duly received, much less, that it was acted upon. The third requisite being absent, there was therefore no valid and complete resignation."
[G.R. No. 118883. January 16, 1998]
SANGGUNIANG BAYAN OF SAN ANDRES, CATANDUANES, Represented by VICE MAYOR NENITO AQUINO and MAYOR LYDIA T. ROMANO, petitioner, vs. COURT OF APPEALS and AUGUSTO T. ANTONIO,
