Thursday, May 31, 2007 Mailing pleadings allowed by rules: Patalinjug lawyer
SENDING pleadings through mail is recognized and allowed by the Rules of Court, said lawyer Romeo Igot, counsel of Acting Mayor Norma Patalinjug.
Igot said this after Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Resurreccion Borra had ruled that Patalinjug’s camp failed to file an appeal on time.
The ruling allowed Lapu-Lapu City Election Officer Ann Janette Chua Hu-Lamban to proclaim re-elected Mayor Arturo Radaza and other winning candidates at past 1 a.m. last May 26.
Date of filing
But Igot said that with little time left for him to prepare and submit his pleadings to the Comelec main office, he sent it through mail knowing that this is allowed. He said the Rules of Court specify that the date of mailing will be considered as the date of filing.
Igot filed before Comelec Manila last May 29 his motion to recall and nullify the proclamation and asked for a hearing on June 8, 2007.
Rules
Rosario Palacio, Comelec Manila Records officer, certified that she did not receive, as of 5 p.m. of May 24, any appeal pertaining to the election in Lapu-Lapu City.
But Igot said they mailed their memorandum of appeal before 4 p.m. on May 24. He cited provisions in the Rules of Court on the filing and service of pleadings, judgments and other papers.
Section 3 of the rules states that the “filing of pleadings, appearances, motions, notices, orders, judgments and all other papers shall be made by presenting official copies thereof personally to the clerk of court or by sending them by registered mail.”
The section further stated that the date of mailing as shown by the post office stamp or registry receipt shall be considered as the date of their filing.
This was included in Igot’s 13-page motion to recall and nullify the proclamation of Lapu-lapu’s winning candidates.
Igot said he no longer had time to handcarry his appeal to the Comelec Central Office.
He said he received voluminous documents on May 23 and had a day to write the memorandum of appeal. Photocopying the documents alone cost them P34,000.
When he filed the notice of appeal to the Board of Canvassers (BOC) last May 19, he then had filed a total of 182 petitions for each election return that he wanted the BOC to exclude from the canvass, which the latter denied.
This prompted Igot, as required by the law, to file a memorandum of appeal to Comelec Manila five days after he filed the notice of appeal to BOC.
When he finished his pleadings on May 24, it was already late afternoon. Thinking that the Comelec office was only open until 5 p.m. and considering the traffic and the 30-kilometer distance, he mailed his pleadings. (OCP)
