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Friday, March 29, 2024

‘PET can annul VP votes’

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"For so long, results of our elections have always been under a cloud."

Hopefully, after almost five years of waiting, we will soon find out with finality the outcome of the protest filed on June 2016 by former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. against Vice-President Leni Robredo.

This is if the Supreme Court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, finally wields its power under Section 4(7), Article VII of the 1987 Constitution to declare the annulment of the result of the elections for President and Vice-President. Clothed with that power, the PET can now proceed with all deliberate speed to rule on the third cause of action sought in the Marcos filing.

In separate submissions to the Supreme Court in compliance with its order last September 29, the Commission on Elections and the Office of the Solicitor General opined that the High Tribunal sitting as the PET has the power to annul the result of the 2016 vice presidential elections in the provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur and Basilan if it can be proven that the same was marred with massive fraud and irregularities that affected the outcome of the contest. Robredo won the race by a slim margin of 263,000 votes.

Jurisprudence, Calida noted, has established and recognized PET ’s sole and exclusive power to hear election protests involving the President and Vice President.

Likewise, he concurred with the Comelec’s position that the PET, as the sole judge of all contests relating to the election, returns and qualifications of the President and the Vice-President to the exclusion of all others, is allowed by the Constitution to promulgate its rules, issue subpoena, take depositions, issue order to arrest witnesses to compel their appearance, production of documents and other evidence for the purpose of deciding election contests.

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On the matter of a declaration of failure of elections which was also sought in the Marcos petition, the Comelec and the OSG had divergent views. The OSG advised that given its role as “..the sole judge of all contests relating to the election, returns and qualifications of the President and Vice-President to the exclusion of all others..” It is implied that it can declare a failure of elections as well. The poll body disagreed with this position insisting that “…the declaration of failure of elections and the holding of special elections belong to its exclusive jurisdiction, not the PET’s…”

The poll body emphasized that while the PET’s authority to annul the results involving the parties to an election contest, in this case Marcos versus Robredo, and declare that no special election is required since the result is easily determinable, it cannot at the same time declare a failure of elections since such a declaration will trigger the holding of special elections because all the positions in the elections will be affected. In the 2016 elections, all national and local positions including those in the then- ARMM were contested. In any event, both the Comelec and the OSG agreed that notwithstanding such jurisdictional concerns, the PET can proceed to annul the results and rule on the cause sought for by the Marcos camp without infringing on the authority of the Comelec to hold special elections. 

It should be noted that Marcos’s protest had three causes of action—annulment of the proclamation of Robredo; the recount and revision of ballots in 36,465 protested clustered precincts; and the annulment of election results for vice president in the provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur and Basilan on the ground of alleged terrorism, intimidation and harassment of voters as well as pre-shading of ballots in all of the 2,756 protested clustered precincts.

The PET dismissed Marcos’s first cause of action for being “meaningless and pointless.” and then decided to release the committee report on the revision and recount of ballots on the three pilot provinces—Iloilo, Negros Oriental and Camarines Sur —involving 5,415 precincts. Finding the results to be inconclusive, the PET then shifted its focus on the third cause of action and ordered the opposing parties to submit their respective memoranda on the issues raised therein.

So now, the final result of this contest hinges on the third cause of action. If the PET proceeds to annul the results of the elections in the three ARMM provinces due to massive fraud and irregularities then it is very possible that Marcos can then be declared the winner by a very slim margin. We note that the Comelec had earlier canvassed the results of the ARMM gubernatorial contest between then ARMM Governor Mujiv Hataman and his rival, then Sulu Governor Sakur Tan but failed to resolve the same due to “mootness” with the passage of the BARMM Law and the contestants decided to run for office in the 2019 elections. Marcos decided to proceed with his protest using the evidence gathered in that hotly contested ARMM gubernatorial polls.

And so, as we await with bated breath how this case will finally be decided it is worth noting that this exercise is not just about winning or losing but more importantly about the strengthening of our democratic institutions and processes.

For so long, results of our elections have always been under a cloud. Or, worse, mooted as the contestants decide to abandon their cases and run for elections in the next electoral cycle. This time around, Marcos decided to slug it out and see this case through to the very end despite calls by many of his supporters to run in last year’s senatorial elections since he was a “sure winner.”

He said then as he was quoted as having said once again after the Comelec and the OSG in effect urged the PET to wield its awesome powers and decide the protest once and for all that no matter the outcome our people need to know what really happened in 2016. In a classic quote he noted: “We have to give utmost importance to the millions of votes cast in the elections and not frustrate the will of our people yet again.”

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