The Supreme Court (SC) has abandoned its earlier rulings as it declared that in the automated election system (AES), votes cast for a nuisance candidate, whose certificate of candidacy was cancelled, are stray votes and should not be credited in favor of any candidate.

Under the AES, the SC ruled that there are no “vague votes” because the voting machines will base their count on the full names with aliases of candidates, as shaded in the ballots.

It pointed out that as opposed to the manual elections where the voters had to write the names of their chosen candidates, there should no longer be any room for confusion under the AES.

Thus, the SC ruled that the votes clearly cast for the legitimate candidate are counted in favor of the legitimate candidate and the votes clearly cast for the nuisance candidate, whose certificate of candidacy is cancelled or not given due course, are considered stray votes and should not be counted in favor of any other candidate.

It cited the clear tenor of Sections 69 and 211 of the Omnibus Election Code which provide that a nuisance candidate is deemed to have never filed a certificate of candidacy and therefore the votes cast for such nuisance candidate are considered stray.

Thus, it stressed that there can be no crediting of votes cast for a nuisance candidate in favor of any other candidate.

The SC decision, written by Associate Justice Maria Filomena D. Singh, was handed down on the petition filed by Marcos “Macoy” Cabrera Amutan, who ran as a board member of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan for the fifth district of Cavite during the 2022 elections.

With the ruling, Amutan’s petition was granted and his proclamation as winner in the elections was upheld.

The SC voided the certificate of canvass and proclamation issued on Sept. 26, 2023 by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in favor of Francisco Paolo Poblete Crisostomo.

A summary issued by the SC’s Office of the Spokesperson stated that Amutan was initially proclaimed as one of the winners.

However, after a losing candidate, Alvic Madlangsakay Poblete, was declared as a nuisance candidate, the votes cast for him were counted in favor of Crisostomo.

The Comelec then annulled the proclamation of Amutan and declared Crisostomo as one of the winning candidates.

In deciding the case, the Court traced existing jurisprudence -- such as Dela Cruz v. Comelec, Santos v. Comelec, and Zapanta v. Comelec -- where the prevailing doctrine on the treatment of votes for nuisance candidates in manual elections required that votes cast for the nuisance candidate, or such votes where the intent of the voter cannot be determined on the face of the ballot, are counted in favor of the legitimate candidate, as no other candidate is deemed to have run for that position as of the day of the elections.

The SC found it imperative to revisit the earlier pronouncements and, thus, issued another ruling that will now guide similar cases in the future.

The decision is contained in a petition which was docketed as G.R. No. 266331 (Marcos Amutan v. Commission on Elections).

It has not been uploaded in the SC website – sc.judiciary.gov.ph – as of posting time.