2010 Rules of Procedure for Municipal Election Contests

Section 1

These Rules shall be known and cited as The 2010 Rules of Procedure for Municipal Election Contests. These Rules shall apply to election contests under the Automated Election System using the Precinct Count Optical Scan, and shall govern the filing of pleadings, practice and procedure in these contests.

Section 2

The Rules of Court shall apply to aspects of pleadings, practice and procedure in election contests not specifically provided for in these Rules.

Section 3

For purposes of and as used in these Rules: (a) Courts – refers to the Regional Trial Court; (b) Election – means the choice or selection of candidates for public office by popular vote through the use of the ballot. Specifically, it covers the conduct of the polls, including the listing of voters, the holding of the electoral campaign, the casting and counting of ballots, the consolidation and transmission of results, and the canvassing of the returns; (c) Automated Election System or AES – refers to an election system using the technology designated by the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) for voting, counting, consolidating, canvassing, transmission of election results, and the returns; (d) Precinct Count Optical Scan or PCOS – refers to the machine as well as the technology using an optical ballot scanner, located in every precinct, that scans or reads paper ballots that voters mark by hand and insert into the scanner to be counted; (e) Official ballot – refers to the paper ballot, capable of being optically scanned, with the pre-printed names of all candidates and with ovals corresponding to each of the printed names. The ovals are the spaces where voters express their choice through marking or shading using a COMELEC-provided marking pen. (f) Picture Image of the Ballot – refers to the image of the ballot captured by the PCOS machine at the time the voter feeds his/her ballot, which image is later stored in a memory or removable data storage device attached to the PCOS machines. (g) Election Return – refers to the document showing the date of the election, the province, city, municipality and the precinct where voting is held, and the number of votes in figures for each candidate in a precinct or in clustered precincts. (h) Electronic Election Return – refers to the copy of the election return in electronic form, generated by the PCOS machine, that is electronically transmitted to: (1) the Municipal Board of Canvassers for the official canvass; (2) the COMELEC Back-Up Server; (3) the server for the dominant majority party; (4) the server for dominant minority party; (5) server for the citizen’s arm authorized by the COMELEC to conduct a parallel count; and (6) the Kapisanan ng mga Broadcaster sa Pilipinas or KBP. (i) Printed Election Return – refers to the copy of the election return printed by the PCOS machine on paper, and authenticated by the manual signatures and thumbmarks of the Board of Election Inspectors (BEI) members. (j) Electronic transmission – refers to the act of conveying data in electronic form from one location to another. (k) Canvass proceedings – refers to the proceedings that involve the consolidation of precinct election results at the municipal level. The term also includes the formal proclamation of the election winners at the municipal level. (l) Consolidation machine – refers to the machine used during the canvass proceedings to consolidate at every canvass level. (m) Statement of Votes by Precinct, Municipality, City, District, Province, or Overseas Absentee Voting (OAV) Station -–refers to a document in electronic and in printed form generated by consolidation machines or by computers during the canvass proceedings. This document records the votes obtained by candidates in each precinct, municipality, city, district, province, or OAV Station, as the case may be. (n) Municipal Certificate of Canvass – refers to the document in electronic and in printed form, containing the total votes in figures obtained by each candidate in the municipality the electronic form of which is the official canvass result in the municipality electronically-transmitted to a higher canvass level. (o) Certificate of Canvass and Proclamation – refers to the official document in printed form, containing the names of all candidates who obtained the highest number of votes in a particular municipality and certifying to these candidates’ proclamation as winners. (p) Data Storage Device – refers to the device that stores electronic documents from where data may be obtained when necessary to verify the accuracy and correctness of election data. The data storage device used in a PCOS shall be under the custody and direct responsibility of the election officer after completion of the voting process. A data storage device includes the back-up storage device under COMELEC custody that likewise stores authentic electronic copies of data. (q) Audit Log – refers to the electronic document, stored in the PCOS machine’s data storage device, containing the list of all activities the PCOS machine performs from the time that it is powered on until it is turned off. (r) Electronic document – refers to the record of information or the representation of information, data, figures, symbols or other modes of written expression, described or however represented, by which a fact may be proved and affirmed, which is received, recorded, transmitted, stored, processed, retrieve or produced electronically. It includes digitally-signed documents and any printout or output, readable by sight or other means, that accurately reflects the electronic document. For purposes of these Rules, an electronic document refers to either the picture image of the ballots or the electronic copies of the election returns, the statements of votes, the certificates of canvass, the audit log, and other electronic data processed by the PCOS and consolidation machines. (s) Manual count of ballots – where voting using the AES ballots proceeded manually because the PCOS machines could not be used, votes shall be counted manually under the guidelines provided by the COMELEC, and the courts shall be guided accordingly. (t) Election contests – refers to election protests or petitions for quo warranto. (u) Election protest – refers to an election contest involving the election and returns of municipal elective officials, grounded on fraud or irregularities committed in the conduct of the elections, i.e., in the casting and the counting of the ballots, in the consolidation of votes and in the canvassing of returns, not otherwise classified as a pre-proclamation controversy cognizable by the COMELEC. The issue is who obtained the plurality of valid votes cast. (v) Quo Warranto under the Omnibus Election Code – refers to an election contest involving the qualifications for office of an elective municipal official, on the ground of ineligibility or disloyalty to the Republic of the Philippines. The issue is whether the respondent possesses all the qualifications and none of the disqualifications prescribed by law. (w) Revision of ballots – refers to the recount of ballots through their physical count; the segregation of ballots for the protestant, the protestee and other candidates for the same position and the recording of the objections and claims to these ballots. (x) Promulgation – refers to the process of officially issuing the court’s decision or order in an election contest.

Section 4

A regional trial court acting on an election contest shall have all the inherent powers of a court provided under Rule 135 of the Rules of Court, including the power to issue auxiliary writs, processes, and other means necessary to carry its authority or jurisdiction into effect and to adopt suitable processes not expressly provided by, but conformable with, law, these Rules, or the Rules of Court.

Section 5

The Rules shall be liberally constructed to achieve a just, expeditious, and inexpensive determination and disposition of municipal election contests.