SC: Allow vote recount against Pampanga gov

By George Trillo

SAN FERNANDO CITY, Pampanga -- The Supreme Court has ordered the Commission on Elections to recount votes cast in the gubernatorial race in Pampanga province in the May 2007 polls.

Justices of the High Court voted unanimously during session Wednesday to junk the petition of Gov. Ed Panlilio seeking to stop the recount of votes in relation to an electoral protest filed by losing candidate Lilia Pineda.

Panlilio, who has said he might challenge President Arroyo if she ran for a congressional seat in her home district in Pampanga, will seek a reconsideration of the SC ruling, his lawyer said.

In a 14-page decision penned by Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, the Court ruled that Panlilio’s petition questioning the decision of the Comelec, which allowed the recount and ordered the collection of ballot boxes, lacked merit.

The SC said there was no grave abuse of discretion on the part of the Comelec in issuing orders for the recount simply because the poll body has the authority to do so.
In the same decision, the court lifted its Feb. 19, 2008 order stopping Comelec from recounting the votes in the gubernatorial race.

The second division of the Comelec issued an order on July 23, 2007 giving due course to the election protest filed by Pineda.

On Aug. 1, 2007, the same division denied Panlilio’s appeal on the order.

The priest-turned-governor then sought relief from all Comelec commissioners but was again denied in an order dated Feb. 6, 2008. Panlilio then asked the SC to nullify the rulings of the Comelec.

In his petition for review, the governor argued that the presiding commissioner of the division of the Comelec is mandated to certify the case to the Comelec once a motion for reconsideration is filed, regardless of whether the order or resolution sought to be reconsidered is an interlocutory order or a final one under Section 5, Rule 19 of the Comelec Rules of Procedure.

But the Court was not convinced by his argument. Citing its decision in Repol v. Comelec, the Court held that since the Comelec Division had issued the interlocutory order, the same Comelec Division should resolve the motion for reconsideration of the order.

It said the remedy of the aggrieved party is neither to file an MR for certification to the entire Comelec nor to elevate the issue to the High Court via a petition for certiorari under Rule 65 of the Rules of Civil Procedure.

The High Court said it was clear in the constitutional provision that the Comelec shall decide on motions for reconsideration only of “decisions” of a Division, meaning those acts having a final character. In the case at bar, the Court said that the assailed Second Division order did not completely dispose of the case, as there was something more to be done, which was to decide the election protest.

“This case is not among those specifically provided under the Comelec Rules of Procedure in which the Comelec may sit en banc… Thus the Comelec en banc is not the proper forum where petitioner may bring the assailed interlocutory orders for resolution,” the Court stressed.
Likewise, the Court said that there was no irregularity on the Aug. 1, 2007 order being signed only by the presiding commissioner of the Second Division who had only acted within the authority vested in him by Section 6, Rule 2 of the Comelec Rules of Procedure.

Furthermore, the High Court noted that the motion for reconsideration was a mere rehash of the ground already raised by petitioner Panlilio in his answer.
It noted that the Comelec Second Division should even be commended for immediately resolving Panlilio’s motion for reconsideration.

“The term of an elective office is short. There is the contestant’s personal stake which generates feuds and discords. Above all is the public interest. A title to public elective office must not be left long under a cloud. The efficiency of public administration should not be impaired,” the Court said.

Panlilio and Pineda both ran for governor of Pampanga in the May 14, 2007 elections.

On May 18 of the same year, the Provincial Board of Canvassers of Pampanga proclaimed Panlilio as duly elected governor by a margin of 1,147 votes. Subsequently, Pineda filed an election protest citing, among others, alleged misreading of ballots cast.
Meantime, Panlilio will ask the Supreme Court to reconsider its decision allowing the recount of votes in Pampanga.

Lawyer Ernesto Francisco told that he got a copy of the high court’s decision late afternoon yesterday and Panlilio is ready to block the move to transport boxes containing ballots cast in all precincts in Pampanga in the last gubernatorial race.

“We will file a motion for consideration. We will do all legal remedies to block the recount move,” Francisco said.