PET orders Binay, Roxas to comment on use of 5,000 ballots for ARMM polls

MANILA, Philippines - Vice President Jejomar Binay and his defeated rival Manuel Roxas II were ordered to comment within two days on a motion of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to use 5,000 protested ballot boxes in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) election set in August.

Chief Justice Renato Corona issued the resolution last week as chairman of the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET).

The Supreme Court (SC) is in decision writing recess until last week of this month.

Roxas has filed an electoral protest against Binay.

In an urgent motion, the poll body asked the PET to allow the use of all 5,000 ballot boxes, which are under the SC’s custody since purchasing new ones would cost the government P17,120,845.

“The remaining four and half months until the conduct of the ARMM elections is insufficient to address legal issues concerning the purchase of 5,000 new ballot boxes, and too short a time to manufacture, ship and deploy them to the various precincts in the ARMM,” the Comelec said.

The Comelec also asked the PET to order Roxas to identify the least priority precincts under his protest from which the 5,000 ballot boxes, more or less, would be taken.

In a ruling last month, the PET allowed the Comelec to copy the compact flash (CF) cards used in the May 10, 2010 national and local elections to resolve cases other than the protest and counter-protest between Binay and Roxas.

The CF cards are now in the SC’s custody for resolution of protest and counter-protest of Roxas and Binay.

In a resolution dated April 12 and released yesterday, the PET granted the request of Comelec Commissioner Rene Sarmiento for authority to copy the CF cards for purposes of producing ballot images that may be used for possible recount of ballots in at least five poll protest cases.

Covered by the order are the cases of Antonio Gatuslao vs. Mayor Agustin Bascon of Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental; Pancrasio Nisce vs. Vice Mayor Hermenegildo Gualberto of San Fernando City, La Union; Jaime Fresnedi vs. Mayor Aldrin San Pedro of Muntinlupa; Marissa Rongavilla vs. Vice Mayor Artemio Simundac of Muntinlupa; and Ferdinand Dysico vs. Vice Mayor Jose Felimon of San Jose City, Nueva Ecija.

The SC required the poll body’s first division, chaired by Sarmiento, to indicate the areas involved in the five protests.