WHEREAS Mariano Manas has been certified by the provincial board of Laguna, acting as a board of canvasser, to have received a plurality of the votes legally cast for third member of the provincial board of Laguna in the general elections held in the said province of June fourth, nineteen hundred and twelve, under the provisions of section three of Act Numbered Fifteen hundred and eighty-two, section three of Act Numbered Two thousand and forty-five, section one Act Numbered Twenty-one hundred and seventy; and
WHEREAS the Supreme Court of the Philippine Islands in the case of Topacio vs. Paredes et al. (Vol. X No. 44, Official Gazette, p.1830) held that under the law at present it is not only proper for the Chief Executive to consider questions of ineligibility of an elective provincial official when the matter is brought before him after the election but before the latter's induction into office but this is the only remedy available now to prevent an ineligible person from holding an elective provincial office; and
WHEREAS Mariano Manas was, on January eleventh, eighteen hundred and ninety-six, convicted of falsification of public documents by the Audencia Territorial de Manila and sentenced, among other things to twelve years imprisonment, perpetual absolute disqualification, civil interdiction, and subjection to the surveillance of the authorities; and
WHEREAS the aforesaid sentence has not been reversed nor has Mariano Manas been pardoned and restored to his civil and political rights; and
WHEREAS, in the opinion of the undersigned, there is reasonable ground to believe that Mariano Manas is morally unfit to hold public office:
NOW THEREFORE, in accordance with the provisions of section twenty-five of Act Numbered Fifteen hundred and eighty-two, as amended by section three of Act Numbered Seventeen hundred and twenty six, the Executive hereby declines to confirm the election of Mariano Manas as third member of the provincial board of the Province of Laguna.
NEWTON W. GILBERT,
Acting Governor-General
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