The House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal has junked the electoral protest filed against the progressive Kabataan Partylist, represented in the Lower House by Rep. Sarah Jane Elago.
In a resolution penned by Supreme Court Associate Justice Rosemari Carandang, the HRET, composed of three SC justices and five congressmen, dismissed the election protest filed by the You Against Corruption and Poverty (YACAP) through its chairperson and first nominee, former Rep. Carol Jayne Lopez.
Lopez assailed the alleged presence of “electoral fraud, anomalies and irregularities” that altered the true results of the partylist race during the mid-term elections in 2019.
She protested the results of all the 341 clustered precincts in General Santos City, saying that these have been tainted by misreading of ballots, miscounting of votes, unexplained irregular and improper rejection of ballots for YACAP, among others.
Responding for Kabataan's defense, Elago questioned HRET’s jurisdiction in resolving the complaint, adding that the affidavits of the complainant’s 271 witnesses were insufficient to add to YACAP’s votes and overturn Kabataan’s margin of total votes.
In resolving the issue, Carandang noted that the certificate of canvass provided by the Commission on Elections indicated that Kabataan received 195,837 or .70 percent of the total votes cast for the partylist race. The youth partylist group was number 51 in the elections participated in by 181 organizations and was awarded one partylist seat by the Comelec.
On the other hand, YACAP placed no. 58 in the race after receiving 167,826 or .60 percent of total votes cast.
Carandang cited Rule 17 of the 2015 HRET Rules providing that an election protest may only be filed by candidates “who obtained the second or third highest number of votes.”
She stressed that under this rule, partylist groups that have “legal standing” to file an election protest were the AKMA-PTM, ranked 52nd and SBP Partylist, that took the 53rd place in the race.
“The rule limiting an election protest to be filed exclusively by the second and third candidates who obtained the highest number of votes for the contested position is mandatory as expressly stated in Rule 17 of the 2015 HRET Rules and was meant to prevent the filing of unnecessary and frivolous actions before the Tribunal,” Carandang pointed out.
The SC magistrate resolved the issue in favor of Kabataan, saying that YACAP Partylist “has no legal standing to file this election protest. Thus, the complaint was “dismissed without further proceeding.”
HRET Chairman and Senior Associate Justice Marvic Mario Victor F. Leonen concurred with the ponente but wrote a separate opinion.
Also supporting Carandang's 'ponente' were Associate Justice Alexander G. Gesmundo, now chief justice; Reps. Dale R. Malapitan, Vincent Garcia, Lawrence Lemuel Fortun and Abdullah Dimaporo.