SC orders Comelec to answer plea of 4 losing senatorial bets

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) was ordered to answer a petition to void the results of the senatorial elections on May 13 last year.

In a resolution released recently, the Supreme Court required the poll body to submit a comment on the petition filed last March.

The SC gave the Comelec 10 days from receipt of notice to comply with the order.

In their  petition, Ricardo Penson, Hans Christian Seeres, Rizalito David and Baldomero Falcone alleged that the poll body committed grave abuse of discretion in proclaiming the winners as they questioned the accuracy of the results.

They said the proclamation of winners and termination of canvass were premature due to existing questions on remaining election returns.

Petitioners said the poll body also failed to comply with the authentication of electronically transmitted election results and ignored the findings of “additional votes” and “loss of votes” of the technical evaluation committee.

They cited the admission of Comelec Chair Sixto Brillantes Jr. during a Senate inquiry that “the canvass was probably compromised” and that he has not done “his duty to make further investigations.”

Petitioners said the Comelec violated the constitutional provisions on transparency on matters of public concern when it did not make public several documents, including results of the canvass with a breakdown per region, random manual audit and technical report.

Spokesman James Jimenez said the   (Comelec) is unperturbed by the petition seeking to void the results of the 2013 senatorial polls.

“We welcome that and we are ready to answer them. The basis of the petition is wrong,” he said.

“All the issues raised have already been addressed, so this case is only an opportunity for us to show that there was nothing wrong in the elections.” 

Proclaimed winners were Senators Grace Poe-Llamanzares, Loren Legarda, Alan Peter Cayetano, Francis Escudero, Nancy Binay, Juan Edgardo Angara, Bam Aquino, Aquilino Pimentel III, Antonio Trillanes IV, Cynthia Villar, JV Ejercito and Gregorio Honasan. – Edu Punay, Sheila Crisostomo