16. Latasa v. Comelec GR, 154829, Dec.

10, 2003

Facts: Petitioner Latasa, had served for three consecutive terms as Mayor of the Municipality of Digos,
Davao del Sur in the elections of 1992, 1995, and 1998. In February 2001, he filed his certificate of
candidacy for city mayor for the 2001 elections as first time running for the position of City Mayor. Sunga,
also a candidate for city mayor in the said elections, filed before the COMELEC a petition to deny
petitioner's candidacy since the latter had already been elected and served for three consecutive terms.

The Comelecs First Division denied petitioner's certificate of candidacy. However, his motion for
reconsideration was not acted upon by the Comelec en banc before election day and he was proclaimed
winner. Only after the proclamation did the Comelec en banc issue a resolution that declared him
disqualified from running for mayor of Digos City, and ordered that all votes cast in his favor should not
be counted.

Petitioner appealed, contended that when Digos was converted from a municipality to a city, it attained a
different juridical personality separate from the municipality of Digos. So when he filed his certificate of
candidacy for city mayor, it should not be construed as vying for the same local government post.

Issue: Whether or not the petitioner will be allowed to run as City Mayor to this newly-created City of
Digos immediately after serving for three consecutive terms as mayor of the Municipality of Digos?

Held: No,because there has been no change in territory nor in constituency. although it was during his
third term as a Mayor of the municipality, the municipality was converted to a city. Thus the three term
limit applies.