Friday, June 22, 2007 ‘Canvass Bogo ERs’ By Isolde D. Amante & Katrinan N. Tabanao Of Sun.Star Cebu
MANILA - To speed things up, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) merged yesterday three cases filed in the long-delayed canvassing of congressional election returns from Bogo and declared the case submitted for resolution.
But with only nine days until the new term starts, the Comelec will have to decide soon whether to order the canvassing of 15 election returns (ERs) sent to Manila for authentication—or to summon the other copies of these ERs.
The question of which ERs to use was one of the points debated on for nearly an hour yesterday morning by lawyers for congressional aspirants Celestino Martinez III and Benhur Salimbangon at the Comelec session hall in Intramuros.
Lawyer Achilles Cañete, speaking for Martinez, asked that all 15 ERs be canvassed without subjecting these to a technical examination, “which is already subject to the jurisdiction of the (House of Representatives) Electoral Tribunal.”
But Salimbangon’s lawyers, headed by Sixto Brillantes, pointed out that as no proclamation has been conducted, the case remains under the commission’s jurisdiction.
“Why can we not agree to look at these ERs, and if these are not fake, then we have no more case?” Brillantes added. “Will the commission order the board of canvassers to proclaim on the basis of a truly spurious document?”
Cañete answered that each ER “on its face, is genuine and should be canvassed.”
Lawyer Eddie Aba, head of the second Special Board of Election Canvassers for Bogo, attended the Second Division’s hearing but was not required to address it.
Also present was Fr. Mar Balili of C-Cimpel, whom the commission summoned to bring copies of at least 35 election returns.
Lawyer Jojie Decal of the Salimbangon camp revealed that after the hearing, Presiding Commissioner Florentino Tuason Jr. verbally ordered that the returns brought to Manila by C-Cimpel be photocopied and certified.
But lawyer Inocencio dela Cerna, in a phone interview, questioned the verbal order, pointing out that it was given after Tuason said the petitions were deemed submitted for resolution. Dela Cerna is one of the lawyers for Martinez.
After the consolidated cases were submitted for resolution, an order can be expected within five days, based on the rules, Decal also said.
Salimbangon had filed a petition to declare illegal the proceedings under the second board of canvassers headed by Gallardo Escobar, with Mohammad Abdulrashid and Genoveva Sevilla.
This was the board that Decal tried to place under a “citizen’s arrest” last May 19 at the Capitol for alleged electoral sabotage. Martinez, for his part, filed a petition to declare illegal the transfer of the Bogo election returns to Manila.
It was Aba, as head of the latest canvassers’ board, who ordered last May 24 that the questioned returns be brought to Manila for an “authenticity check.”
(At that point, Bogo’s canvassing had already been moved twice: first from the town hall to the Capitol, then from the Capitol to the Comelec regional office in Cebu City.)
The Martinez camp has repeatedly pointed out that pre-proclamation cases are not allowed in the Senate, House and party-list elections, so the canvassing and proclamation should proceed and any election protest should go through the House Electoral Tribunal.
Their rivals, however, countered that canvassers, on their own or upon a written complaint, is authorized to correct “manifest errors” in the election returns or certificates of canvass.
What’s still not confirmed is if there are indeed manifest errors in the remaining ERs for Bogo.
Section 35 of Comelec Resolution 7859 lists the situations where a manifest error in the tabulation or tallying of results may occur:
* When a copy of the ER or certificate of canvass is tabulated more than once;
* When two or more copies of the ERs of one precinct, or two or more copies of the certificates of canvass were tabulated separately;
* When a mistake is committed in the copying of figures;
* When returns from non-existent precincts are canvassed; and
* When mistakes are made in adding up the votes.
Resolution 7859 spells out the general instructions for canvassers in the May 14 elections.
