CASED DIGEST : PIMENTEL VS COMELEC

G.R. No. 178413             March 13, 2008

AQUILINO L. PIMENTEL III, petitioner, 

vs.

THE COMMISSION ON ELECTIONS EN BANC SITTING AS THE NATIONAL BOARD OF CANVASSERS, THE SPECIAL PROVINCIAL BOARD OF CANVASSERS FOR MAGUINDANAO CHAIRED BY ATTY. EMILIO S. SANTOS, and JUAN MIGUEL F. ZUBIRI, respondents.

Facts : The Petition stemmed from the 14 May 2007 national elections for 12 senatorial posts. At the time of filing of the Petition, around two months after the said elections, the 11 candidates with the highest number of votes had already been officially proclaimed and had taken their oaths of office as Senators. With other candidates conceding, the only remaining contenders for the twelfth and final senatorial post were Pimentel and private respondent Juan Miguel F. Zubiri (Zubiri). Public respondent Commission on Elections (COMELEC) en banc, acting as the National Board of Canvassers (NBC), continued to conduct canvass proceedings so as to determine the twelfth and last Senator-elect in the 14 May 2007 elections.

Pimentel assailed the proceedings before the NBC and its constituted Special Provincial Board of Canvassers for Maguindanao (SPBOC-Maguindanao) in which the Provincial and Municipal Certificates of Canvass (PCOC and MCOCs) from the province of Maguindanao were respectively canvassed. The SPBOC-Maguindanao was created because the canvass proceedings held before the original Provincial Board of Canvassers for Maguindanao (PBOC-Maguindanao)

Task Force Maguindanao, headed by COMELEC Chairman Benjamin S. Abalos, Sr. and Commissioner Nicodemo T. Ferrer, retrieved and collected 21 MCOCs from the municipalities of Maguindanao, mostly copy 2, or the copy intended to be posted on the wall. Due to the consistent denial by the SPBOC-Maguindanao of the repeated and persistent motions made by Pimentel’s counsel to propound questions to PES Bedol and the Chairpersons of the MBOCs-Maguindanao regarding the due execution and authenticity of the Maguindanao MCOCs, Pimentel’s counsel manifested her continuing objection to the canvassing of the said MCOCs.

On 29 June 2007, the SPBOC-Maguindanao submitted to the NBC the second PCOC for Maguindanao. In the proceedings before the NBC, Pimentel’s counsel reiterated her request to propound questions to PES Bedol and the Chairpersons of the MBOCs-Maguindanao and the SPBOC-Maguindanao. The NBC, however, refused to grant her request. Pimentel’s counsel thereafter moved for the exclusion of the second Maguindanao PCOC from the canvass

Pimentel averred that said canvass proceedings were conducted by the NBC and SPBOC-Maguindanao in violation of his constitutional rights to substantive and procedural due process and equal protection of the laws, and in obvious partiality to Zubiri

In the meantime, without any TRO and/or Status Quo Ante Order from the Court, the canvass proceedings before the NBC continued, and by 14 July 2007, Zubiri (with 11,004,099 votes) and Pimentel (with 10,984,807 votes) were respectively ranked as the twelfth and thirteenth Senatorial candidates with the highest number of votes in the 14 May 2007 elections.

After a close scrutiny of the allegations, arguments, and evidence presented by all the parties before this Court, this Court rules to dismiss the present Petition

ISSUE

HELD : A pre-proclamation controversy has been defined by Batas Pambansa Blg. 881, otherwise known as the Omnibus Election Code of the Philippines, as follows:

SEC. 241. Definition. – A pre-proclamation controversy is any question pertaining to or affecting the proceeding of the board of canvassers which may be raised by any candidate or by any registered political party or coalition of political parties before the board or directly with the Commission, or any matter raised under Sections 233, 234, 235 and 236 in relation to the preparation, transmission, receipt, custody and appearance of the election returns.

Under Republic Act No. 7166, providing for synchronized national and local elections, pre-proclamation controversies refer to matters relating to the preparation, transmission, receipt, custody and appearance of election returns and certificates of canvass

Similarly, the COMELEC en banc acting as the NBC for the election for Senators, did not violate Section 30 of Republic Act No. 7166, as amended by Republic Act No. 9369, when it denied Pimentel’s request to question PES Bedol and the Chairpersons of the MBOCs-Maguindanao and SPBOC-Maguindanao, and his subsequent motion to exclude the second Maguindanao PCOC.

The SPBOC-Maguindanao, in the conduct of its canvass proceedings, properly refused to allow Pimentel to contest the Maguindanao MCOCs at that stage by questioning PES Bedol and the Chairpersons of the MBOCs-Maguindanao and presenting evidence to prove the alleged manufactured nature of the said MCOCs, for such would be tantamount to a pre-proclamation case still prohibited by Section 15 of Republic Act No. 7166, even after its amendment by Republic Act No. 9369.

According to Section 30 of Republic Act No. 7166, as amended by Republic Act No. 9369, Congress and the COMELEC en banc, acting as the NBC, shall determine the authenticity and due execution of the certificates of canvass for President, Vice-President and Senators, respectively, as accomplished and transmitted to them by the local boards of canvassers. For the province of Maguindanao, it is the PBOC which transmits the PCOC to the NBC.

Given the foregoing, there is indeed no merit in Pimentel’s request before the NBC to still question PES Bedol and the Chairpersons of the MBOCs-Maguindanao and SPBOC-Maguindanao regarding the Maguindanao MCOCs. There is also no reason to exclude the second Maguindanao PCOC from the national canvass of votes for Senators after its authenticity and due execution had been determined by the NBC in accordance with the criteria provided by the law.

This Court finds Pimentel’s argument of deprivation of due process problematic since he has not established what he is being deprived of: life, liberty, or property. He was a candidate in the senatorial elections. At the time he filed the instant Petition, he might have been leading in the canvassing of votes, yet the canvass proceedings were still ongoing, and no winner for the twelfth and last senatorial post had been proclaimed. May he already claim a right to the elective post prior to the termination of the canvass proceedings and his proclamation as winner, and may such a right be considered a property right which he cannot be deprived of without due process? These were clearly substantial and weighty issues which Pimentel did not address. Unfortunately, this Court cannot argue and settle them for him.

Finally, while Section 15, in relation to Section 30, of Republic Act No. 7166, as amended by Republic Act No. 9369, did introduce an additional exception to the prohibition against pre-proclamation controversies in elections for President, Vice-President, and Senators, this Court has already established in the preceding discussion that Pimentel cannot invoke the same in his Petition. The provisions in question did not materially change the nature of canvass proceedings before the boards of canvassers, which still remain summary and administrative in nature for the purpose of canvassing the votes and determining the elected official with as little delay as possible and in time for the commencement of the new term of office