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GENUINE
Opposition senatorial candidate Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel
III suffered a major setback in his bid to capture the
last remaining slot in the senatorial race after the
Supreme Court (SC) junked his plea to stop the
Commission on Elections from recanvassing the votes from
Maguindanao province.
The
court's refusal to stop its work encouraged the Comelec
to speed up its controversial recanvassing of votes from
Maguindanao, which his administration rival for the 12th
slot, Juan Miguel Zubiri, hopes will cover Pimentel's
lead. As of Thursday night, Pimentel led the Comelec
canvass by 133,005 votes after Comelec added the results
of the January 20 special elections in four areas.
Shortly
before
9 p.m., Comelec suspended the work and was to convene at
2 p.m.
Friday to go over the certificates of canvass (COCs)
from Shairf Kabunsuan and Maguindanao.
In a
press briefing after Thursday’s oral arguments on
Pimentel’s petition, SC spokesman Jose Marquez said the
Court, in a unanimous decision, ordered the parties to
submit their respective memoranda within 10 days based
on the merits of the case and not on Pimentel’s plea for
a temporary restraining order (TRO).
Initial
tallies by the special provincial board of canvassers in
Maguindanao showed Juan Miguel Zubiri dislodging
Pimentel from the 12th slot in the senatorial race after
getting more than 150,000 votes from 16 of the 22 towns
of the province.
In
Thursday’s oral arguments, the justices expressed
opposition to Pimentel’s bid to have the election
results from Maguindanao excluded in the national
canvassing for the senatorial race, owing to massive
fraud.
Associate Justice Cancio Garcia noted the admission of
Pimentel that he has no concrete evidence to prove that
the documents retrieved by the Comelec from Maguindanao
were fabricated.
Garcia
said the Court cannot allow the more than 200,000 voters
from the 22 towns in Maguindanao to be disfranchised on
Pimentel’s “assumption” that the municipal certificates
of canvass (MCOCs) recently generated from the province
were not authentic.
Garcia
also brushed aside Pimentel’s argument that the MCOCs
could have been fabricated since the Comelec did not
follow its established procedures in canvassing votes.
Pimentel, who personally argued for his petition,
claimed that the documents retrieved from the municipal
board of canvassers were manufactured and
“untrustworthy” owing to the circumstances by which they
were generated.
“You are
imputing irregularity on the documents not on its face
but on the manner these documents were generated. You
have no proof whatsoever that the documents were
themselves irregular, tampered with or doctored,” Garcia
said.
Garcia
suggested that the Comelec be allowed to finish the
canvassing of Maguindanao votes, since the loser still
has another remedy of questioning the authenticity of
the ballots before the Senate Electoral Tribunal.
He noted
that if the Court would grant Pimentel’s petition to
exclude the votes from Maguindanao, it would be
tantamount to a violation of the people’s right of
suffrage.
Associate Justice Renato Corona also expressed concern
that exclusion of the Maguindanao votes would
disfranchise its people.
“If the
people in Maguindanao voted and were excluded, what is
the remedy of the people to exercise their right to
vote?” Corona asked.
Associate Justice Antonio Carpio also reiterated the
need to include the votes of Maguindanao in the national
canvassing, based on Pimentel’s admission that an
election took place and that the Comelec had already
proclaimed the winning local officials in the province.
Associate Justice Minita Chico-Nazario added the
possibility that the votes of Maguindanao in the
national tally will be totally lost if the Court will
grant Pimentel’s plea for the TRO.
Other
justices, on the other hand, told Pimentel that the
Court has no jurisdiction over his claim of “statistical
improbability” involving the result of the recanvassing,
where 18 out of the 37 senatorial candidates received no
vote.
Nazario
said the issue on statistical improbability is a factual
issue over which the Court has no jurisdiction,
considering that it is not a trier of facts.
Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco Jr., on the other
hand, deemed incorrect Pimentel’s reliance on the Court
ruling in the Lagumbay vs Comelec case in 1965.
Contrary
to Pimentel’s claim, Velasco said the Court did not
order the Comelec to exclude certificates of canvass in
certain areas owing to alleged fraud, but merely upheld
the power of the Comelec to set aside the election
results tainted with fraud.
The 12
justices who voted against the issuance of a TRO were
Chief Justice Reynato Puno, Associate Justices Consuelo
Ynares-Santiago, Antonio Eduardo Nachura, Antonio Carpio,
Maria Alicia Austria-Martinez, Renato Corona, Conchita
Carpio-Morales, Adolfo Azcuna, Dante Tinga, Minita
Chico-Nazario, Cancio Garcia and Prebsitero Velasco Jr.
Associate Justice Leonardo Quisumbing and Angelina
Sandoval-Gutierrez were on leave.
The
National Board of Canvassers (NBOC) reconvened last
night to canvass votes from four provinces, including
the highly contested Maguindanao as the SC refused to
issue a TRO to stop the tabulation.
Elections Chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr. said the NBOC has
no choice but to include Maguindanao’s certificate of
canvass as it reconvened last night to canvass the votes
in the special elections held in Basilan, Lanao del Sur,
and Biñan, Laguna.
“If
there’s no TRO, what can we do? We have to beat the June
30 deadline. If they don’t issue a TRO, there’s no basis
[to stop the canvassing],” Abalos told reporters.
The
Maguindanao votes gave Zubiri a 13,000 lead over
Pimentel. |
