The Commission on Elections has sided with Vice President Leni Robredo in seeking for the reversal of the ruling of the Supreme Court, acting as Presidential Electoral Tribunal, that set the 50-percent shading threshold for validity of votes in the ongoing election recount on 2016 vice presidential race.
In a 13-page comment, the Comelec stood firm in the 25-percent shading threshold it used in canvassing of votes cast during the May 9, 2016 elections as stated in its Minute Resolution No. 16-0600 that was submitted to the PET by Robredo’s camp for her appeal.
“To reiterate, for purposes of the 09 May 2016 National and Local Elections, Comelec, in order to ensure that votes are not wasted due to inadequate shading or that not accidental or unintended small marks are counted as votes in order to reflect the true intent of the voter, had set the ballot shading threshold at 25 percent,” the Comelec’s legal department said.
The comment was filed in compliance with an earlier order of the SC for Comelec to submit its position after Solicitor General Jose Calida opted to drop the poll body as a client and file its own position as “tribune of the people.”
The Comelec invoked its constitutional power to not only administer elections and decide all questions affecting polls even while it acknowledged the authority of the PET to be the sole judge of all election contests relating to the president and the vice president.
“In deciding election disputes, like election protest, decisions should be based on the standards and procedures used during the conduct of elections and in ascertainment of election results. To use different standard would be erroneous and may result to unnecessary questions on the legitimacy of all elected officials, from the president down to the last Sangguniang Bayan member,” the poll body said.
The Comelec also cited its Random Manual Audit Guide on Appreciation of Markings as the factual basis for the 25-percent threshold rule.
“It cannot be overemphasized that the threshold issue as it is now being presented is more an issue of fact than a question of law. Otherwise stated, it is more an issue of what was used to appreciate, count votes and proclaim winners, than an issue of which rule, as between those of Comelec and the Supreme Court, should prevail,” it added.
The Comelec’s position contradicts that of the Office of the Solicitor General, which had backed the 50-percent threshold in favor of Robredo’s challenger, former senator and defeated vice presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
The PET currently applies a 50-percent threshold in the manual vote recount, a practice Robredo and her allies say would lead to the “massive disenfranchisement” of voters whose system-counted 2016 poll choices would be invalidated during the recount.
Earlier, Solicitor General Jose Calida asked the PET to deny the appeal of Robredo and instead affirm its resolution last April 10, which invalidated votes shaded by less than 50 percent in the ongoing manual recount.
Calida argued that in vice presidential elections, it is the PET that has “the sole authority to judge all contests” and the Comelec has no jurisdiction over the case, citing Section 4, Article VII of the Constitution.
The chief state lawyer also pointed out that the matter on what percentage of threshold should be applied in determining the validity of votes was already settled by the tribunal in its Rules promulgated in 2010.
In her appeal before the PET, Robredo insisted that the Comelec had set the threshold at 25-percent and that it informed the court about it through a letter in September 2016. The said letter informed the court that the 25 percent threshold would be used for the May 9, 2016 national and local elections.
However, Calida had said that the letter cited by Robredo actually referred to “an optical scan counting” and not manual counting, which is being carried out by the tribunal.
Lastly, Calida rebutted the claim of Robredo that votes would be disenfranchised because of the 50-percent threshold set by the Tribunal.
“Differently stated, insofar as the voters were concerned, they knew that for their votes to be counted they should fully shade the oval space,” he said.
The ongoing recount covers three pilot provinces – Camarines Sur, Iloilo and Negros Oriental – covering a total of 5,418 clustered precincts.
After the recount of these three provinces, the PET will decide whether to not to proceed with the recount on a total of 132,446 precincts in 39,221 clustered precincts covering 27 provinces and cities identified in the protest of Marcos.
Marcos filed the protest on June 29 2016, claiming that the camp of Robredo cheated in the automated polls in the May 2016 national polls.
Meanwhile, Robredo’s satisfaction rating remained at “good” despite a 2-point drop in the second quarter of 2018, according to a survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) that was released on Thursday.
Conducted from June 27 to 30 of this year, the survey said 54 percent of Filipinos are satisfied with Robredo’s performance while 22 percent are dissatisfied.
This is equivalent to a +32 satisfaction rating, which is lower than the +34 the Vice President received in March this year.
SWS said the decline in Robredo’s satisfaction rating is due to decreases in different parts of the country, as she suffered a 5-point decrease in Balance Luzon, and 2 points in Metro Manila.
In Visayas, however, Robredo’s rating showed a 3-point increase in Visayas to +50 from +47 last March.
Her Mindanao rating, on the other hand, stayed moderate at +26.
The second quarter SWS survey was conducted using face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults (18 and above) and has a +/-3 percent margin of error for national percentages.
Robredo is the acknowledged leader of the opposition, which is set to release its senatorial line-up for the 2019 mid-term polls in September.