Comelec asked to refund P3.7-million filing fees

MANILA, Philippines - An anti-graft group yesterday asked the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to refund some P3.7 million in filing fees paid for 37 unresolved electoral cases filed in connection with the 2007 midterm polls.

In a statement, the Center for Anti-Graft and Corruption Prevention Inc. said the Comelec should return the money paid by the complainants because the commission failed to resolve their cases on time. Otherwise, the poll body commits graft, the group said.

The center claimed that eight of the 37 cases are pending before the Comelec is while the rest are pending at the agency’s Electoral Contest Adjudication Division.

“Comelec’s failure to resolve aforesaid cases within three years to date already signifies blunt and worst disservice to the public by the poll body, aside from causing aggrieved parties to spend P100,000 each in filing fees only to get ‘hijacked’ in the end with the non-resolution of their complaints on time,” said center secretary-general Lane Afable.

Afable said the Comelec might have already violated Section 3 of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards of Public Officials and Employees, among others.

“It is clear that the failure of Comelec to resolve the 37 electoral protests on time has caused serious undue injuries to aggrieved parties aside from its non-compliance to provisions provided in RA 6713 and other civil service rules,” he said.

He also said that delayed resolution of cases should not be tolerated by aggrieved parties and by the Office of the Ombudsman so that it won’t be repeated again in the 95 new electoral protests filed at the Comelec in relation to the 2010 automated presidential elections.