2010 Rules of Procedure for Municipal Election Contests

Section 1

The revision of ballots shall commence on the date specified in the preliminary conference order.

Section 2

As many revision committees as may be necessary shall be constituted. Each revision committee shall be composed of a chairperson and two members, one of whom is designated by the protestant and the other by the protestee. The court shall designate the chairperson and a recorder from among its personnel. The parties shall also designate their respective substitute revisors. The revision committee shall conduct the revision in the court premises or at such other place in the court may designate, in every case under its strict supervision. The revisors shall discharge their duties with the highest degree of integrity, conducting the proceedings with the same dignity and discipline the court itself brings to the proceedings. They shall exercise extraordinary diligence and take the precautionary measures required by this level of diligence to prevent loss, disappearance or impairment of the integrity of the ballots and the election documents, whether electronic or printed, and the misuse of the electronic election machines, devices and paraphernalia.

Section 3

The court shall fix the compensation of the revisors at Eight Hundred Pesos (P800.00) per ballot box for the chairperson and Three Hundred Pesos (P300.00) per ballot box for each party revisor. The party revisors shall each be entitled to an additional per diem of Five Hundred Pesos (P500.00) per day. The compensation for a recorder shall be Three Hundred Pesos (P300.00) per ballot box. This compensation shall be chargeable against the cash deposit as provided for under Section 2, Rule 7 of these Rules.

Section 4

Continuous revisions. – (a) Period for revision. – Revision shall be conducted from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon and from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. from Monday to Friday, except on non-working holidays. The revisors may take fifteen-minute breaks during the revision. (b) Revision to continue even if a party revisor is absent or late. – The revision shall not be delayed or postponed by reason of the absence or tardiness of a party’s revisor or substitute revisor, as long as the chairperson and one party revisor are present. The court may at any time designate another chairperson if the regular chairperson fails for any reason to report. (c) If the revisor of the protestee is absent or late. - If the revisor of the protestee is absent or late for thirty minutes and no alternate appears as a substitute, the revision shall nevertheless commence. The protestee shall be deemed to have waived the right to appear and to object to the revision of ballots made during his or her revisor’s absence or tardiness. (d) If the revisor of the protestant or the revisors of both parties fail to appear. – If the protestant’s revisor or the revisors of both parties or their alternates fail to appear without justifiable reason within one hour after the scheduled start of the revision, the ballot boxes scheduled for revision that day and the corresponding ballot box keys in the possession of the chairperson, shall be returned to the court’s ballot box custodian, and the ballots shall no longer be revised, the parties are deemed to have waived their right to the revision for that day, and the chairperson shall state the facts of absence and waiver in the revision report.

Section 5

During the revision, no person other than the judge, the clerk of the court, the chairperson and the members of the revision committee, the parties and their duly authorized representatives shall have the access to the revision area.

Section 6

The revision of the votes on the ballots shall be done manually and visually and through the use of appropriate PCOS machines, according to the procedure below: (a) On the scheduled day of revision, the following, if needed, should be in the custody of the court: (i)the ballot boxes containing the ballots in protested and counter protested precincts; and (ii) the data storage devices and the PCOS machines used in the precincts concerned or any other device that can be used to authenticate or assure the genuineness of the ballots; (b) The revision committee shall initially note, before anything else, the condition of the ballot box and its locks and locking mechanism, and record this condition in the revision report. Based on this observation, the revision committee must also determine whether the integrity of the ballot box has been preserved. (c) The ballot box shall then be opened and the ballots taken out. The "valid" ballots shall first be counted, without regard to the votes obtained by the parties. This will be followed by the counting of the torn, unused stray and rejected ballots, as classified at the polling place. (d) The votes appearing in the election returns copy for the ballot box shall then be recorded in the minutes. (e) Prior to the actual revision, the revision committee must authenticate each and every ballot to make sure that it was the same ballots cast and fed to the PCOS machine during the voting. The authentication shall be through the use of PCOS machines actually used during the elections in the subject precinct, or by another device certified by the Commission to be capable of performing the desired authentication requirement through the use of the bar codes and the ultra-violet ray code detection mechanism. (f) The recount shall only proceed after the revision committee, through its chairperson and members, has determined that the integrity of the ballots has been preserved. (g) The revision committee shall thereafter proceed to look at the ballots and count the indicated votes for the contested position. (h) In looking at the shades or marks used to register votes, the revision committee 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 technicalities aside. Furthermore, the votes are presumed to have been made by the voter and shall be so considered unless reasons exist to justify their rejection. However, marks or shades that are less than 50% of the oval shall not be considered as valid votes. Any issue as to whether a certain mark or shade is within the threshold shall be determined by using the PCOS machine, not by human determination. (i) The rules on the appreciation of the ballots under Section 211 of the Omnibus Election Code shall apply suppletorily when appropriate. (j) There shall be a tally sheet in at least 5 copies, plus additional copies depending on the number of additional parties, that shall be used to tally the votes as they are counted through the use of taras and sticks. (k) After all the ballots from one ballot box have been counted, the revision committee shall secure the contested ballots and complete the recount report for the precinct. Thereafter, it shall proceed to recount the votes from the ballots of the next precinct. (l) In case of multiple revision committees, the recount shall be done simultaneously. (m) In the event that the revision committee determines that the integrity of the ballots and the ballot box have not been preserved, as when proof of tampering or substitution exists, it shall proceed to instruct the printing of the picture image of the ballots stored in the data storage device for the precinct. The court shall provide a non-partisan technical person who shall conduct the necessary authentication process to ensure that the data or image stored is genuine and not a substitute. Only after this determination can the printed picture image be used for the recount,

Section 7

The committee shall prepare and submit to the court a revision report per precinct stating the following: (a) the precinct number; (b) the date, the place and the time of revision; (c) the votes of the parties per physical count; (d) the condition and the serial numbers of the following:. (i) ballot boxes; (ii) self-locking security metal or plastic seals (inner and outer) and padlocks of the ballot boxes; (iii) security envelopes containing the election returns; and (iv) numbered paper seal of the envelopes; (e) if required, the availability of and other circumstances attendant to the PCOS machines and other automated election devices and paraphernalia used in the revision; (f) the votes of the parties per the ballot box copy of the election returns and per the tally sheet/board found inside the ballot box; (g) the number of ballots objected to by the parties indicating therein the exhibit numbers; (h) the grounds of objections; (i) the number of stray ballots; (j) the claims on ballots with their exhibit numbers; and (k) the entries in the Minutes of Voting and Counting, particularly: (i) the number of registered voters; (ii) the number of voters who actually voted; (iii) the number of official ballots, together with their serial numbers, used in the election; (iv) the number if ballots actually used indicating the serial numbers of the ballots; and (v) the unused ballots together with their serial numbers. The revision forms shall be made available prior to the revision. The per-precinct revision report shall be signed and certified by the chairperson and by the parties’ revisors, and shall form part of the records of the case. In addition to the per-precinct revision report, the revision committee shall also prepare and submit to the court, within three days from termination of the revision, a committee report summarizing the data, votes, ballot objections and claims, and significant observations made during the revision of ballots from the protested precincts and later from the counter-protested precincts, if so conducted based on the provisions of Section 10 below. Each party furnished with a copy of the committee report may submit its comments thereon within a non-extendible period of three (3) days from notice.

Section 8

Revision of ballots shall start with those from the protested precincts , subject to the provisions of Section 10 thereof.

Section 9

Inquiry as to security markings and vital information relative to ballots and election documents. – When a revision of ballots is ordered, and for the guidance of the revisors, the court shall inquire about the security markings on the ballots and the security measures used in the election documents from the Chairperson of COMELEC who shall be obliged to indicate this markings, measures and other vital information that may aid the court in determining the authenticity of the ballots and election documents. The parties shall be notified of the results of this inquiry.

Section 10

Post-revision determination of the merit or legitimacy of the protest prior to revision of the counter-protest. – Immediately after the revision or examination of ballots, or the verification or re-tabulation of election returns in all protested precincts, the protestant shall be required to point to a number of precincts, corresponding to twenty percent (20%) of the total of the revised protested precincts, that will best attest to the votes recovered, ore that will best exemplify the fraud or irregularities pleaded in the protest. In the meanwhile, the revision or examination of the ballots, or the verification or re-tabulation of election returns in the counter-protested precincts, shall be suspended for a period not exceeding fifteen days to allow the court to preliminarily determine, through the appreciation of ballots and other submitted election documents, the merit of legitimacy of the protest based in the chosen twenty percent (20%) of the protested precincts. Based on the results of this post-revision preliminary determination, the court may dismiss the protest without further proceedings if the validity of the grounds for the protest is no established by the evidence from the chosen twenty percent (20%) of the protested precincts; or proceed with the revision or examination if the ballots, or the verification or re-tabulation of election returns in the counter-protested precincts. In the latter case, the protestee shall be required to pay the cash deposit within a non-extendible period of three (3) days from notice.

Section 11

If the court decides not to dismiss the protest after the preliminary examination of the evidence from the chose twenty percent (20%) of the protested precincts, revision with respect to the remaining precincts shall proceed at the same time that the ballots or election documents from the counter-protested precincts are being revised. After completion of the revision of the protested precincts, the court shall proceed with the appreciation and revision of ballots from the counter-protested precincts.