(Eagle News) – The Supreme Court, acting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), has amended its earlier issuance on the “use of numerical threshold” on the shading of votes in the May 2016 presidential elections.
In its decision, the PET instead directed head revisors to “refer to the election returns to verify the total number of votes as read and counted by the vote counting machines” in its deliberations on the electoral protest case filed by former Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr., against Vice-President Leni Robredo.
The PET amended Rule 62 of the PET Revisor’s Guide pursuant to Rule 88, so that the “segregation classification of ballots shall be done by referring to the Election Return ER) generated by the machine used in the elections.”
The Tribunal thus directed the head revisor to count the “total number of ballots for the Protestant (Marcos), Protestee (Robredo), Other Candidates, and with Stray Votes and record said matter on the appropriate spaces of the Revision Report” paving the way for a faster vote recount.
This amendment was to take effect immediately, said the PET.
-Use of decrypted ballot images to the interest of Marcos, says PET-
The decision, penned by Associate Justice Benjamin Caguioa, also allowed the use of the “decrypted ballot images” in ruling on the various parties’ objections and claims “during the appreciation stage” in the counting of votes.
With this, the tribunal denied the “strong opposition” of Marcos on the use of the decrypted ballot images which represented the “digital images of the paper ballots as captured by the VCM when the paper ballots were fed by the voters into the VCM during the 2016 elections.”
“Finally, the Tribunal finds it inconsistent that protestant (Marcos) would now oppose the use of the ballot images when he himself moved for the decryption and printing of the ballot images,” the PET said in its resolution.
It pointed out that “jurisprudence has already definitely settled the use of the printed ballot images.”
The tribunal also explained that the decrypted ballot images will help in determining the number of votes if the official paper ballots are not available.
“In the instant Protest, the previous instances when the Tribunal directed the use of decrypted images have been limited to those where the paper ballots were wet, damaged, or are otherwise unreadable.”
The Tribunal even pointed out that “it is in the interest of protestant (Marcos) that the Tribunal be allowed to resort to the decrypted ballot images, whenever necessary.”
Without the decrypted ballot images, protestant will be deprived of the opportunity to revise the votes for the precincts where the paper ballots are unavailable.”
Marcos had earlier claimed that ballots in at least four precincts in Bato, Camarines Sur were all wet and useless for the recount of votes in the 2016 vice presidential race.
-Robredo’s claims “highly premature,” says PET-
The Tribunal also addressed the claim of Robredo’s camp regarding the alleged “systematic decrease” in her votes.
“As already mentioned, during the revision proceedings, there is yet no final deduction or addition of votes,” it said.
“At this stage and as illustrated above, it is highly premature for protestee to claim a deduction of votes as the Tribunal has yet to rule on the objections and claims of the parties in the appreciation stage,” it said.
“In fact, the very purpose of ballot appreciation by the Tribunal is to avoid disenfranchisement of the electorate by ascertaining their true will and intent,” the tribunal’s resolution added.
The Robredo camp is insisting on a 25 percent shading of the oval spaces in the ballots, while the Marcos camp is insisting that valid votes are those with at least 50 percent shading of ovals.
“In examining the shades or marks used to register the votes, the Head Revisor shall bear in mind that the will of the voters reflected as votes in the ballots shall, as much as possible, be given effect, setting aside any technicalities,” the Tribunal’s resolution amending Rule 62 read.
“Any issue on the segregation and classification of ballots by the Head Revisor shall be resolved by the assigned Revision Supervisor, based on the guidelines set by the Tribunal,” it said.
The Tribunal said that any objections on the ruling “shall not suspend the revision of a particular ballot box..”
The PET’s resolution penned by Associate Justice Caguioa was concurred to by Supreme Court chief justice Teresita Leonardo De Castro, Associate Justices Lucas Bersamin, Mariano Castillo, Estela Perlas-Bernabe, Marvic Leonen, Francis Jardeleza, Noel Tijam, Andres Reyes Jr., Alexander Gesmundo, and Jose Reyes.
There were no objections to the resolution. Two other SC justices — Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio and Associate Justice Diosdado Peralta – were on official leave.
