High Court dismisses review of mayor’s 2010 victory
-A A +AThursday, August 23, 2012
THE Supreme Court (SC) dismissed a petition filed by former House Speaker Prospero Nograles to review a ruling by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) declaring Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte as the winner of the 2010 mayoral election.
Posted in a national daily, Nograles' petition for review was junked for lack of merit, citing a ruling by the high court en banc.
The SC found “no grave abuse of discretion by the [Comelec] en banc in denying petitioner’s motion for reconsideration of its earlier decision for failure to pay the required motion fees prescribed under the Comelec Rules of Procedure, as amended.”
The high court said that "the payment of the filing fee is a jurisdictional requirement and non-compliance is a valid basis for dismissal of the case."
In his protest, Nograles noted a report from the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) saying that there were about 40,000 double registrants in Davao City.
He also cited time discrepancies and discrepancies in the date stamps of election returns (ER), and claimed several ERs bore no digital signatures.
Nograles further argued that there were no observers from the political parties when the compact flash (CF) cards were removed from the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines.
He also claimed that some election results had no digital signatures.
Published in the Sun.Star Davao newspaper on August 23, 2012.
Local news
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