Comelec En Banc denied move to re-seat Pates as mayor of El Salvador, MisOr

September 23, 2008

By Lizanilla J. Amarga

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) En Banc has turned down the motion that would have reinstalled Nilo Pates as the city mayor of El Salvador, Misamis Oriental.

In its five-page resolution, the Comelec En Banc upheld the decision of the First Division of the Comelec that an “error” was committed by Regional Trial Court branch 41 presiding judge Jeoffre Acebedo.

This when the local trial court judge granted the execution pending appeal in favor of Pates which allowed the mayoral candidate to sit as city mayor earlier.

The Comelec quoted a Supreme Court decision that there must be “good reasons” for the granting of a writ of execution pending appeal considering that Pates won in Acebedo’s court against re-electionist Emelita Almirante.

It scrapped Pates’ argument that there is good reason to have him sit as mayor pending Almirante’s appeal because there is “shortness in time” and that he has already posted a bond.

Lastly, the Comelec En Banc said it cannot grant Pate’s motion that mayoral candidate sit as mayor while Almirante be ousted as Acebedo’s decision failed to “clearly establish” Almirante’s defeat nor Pates’ victory.

The Comelec En Banc said Acebedo’s decision dated Nov. 12, 2007 included how 122 and 49 ballots were considered as marked on the ground that they contain names of political parties on the lines reserved for party-list representatives.

The commissioners explained that it was not enough for Acebedo to just rule that these above ballots be invalidated pursuant to Torres vs. HRET where the Supreme Court’s ruled that if the ballots contain the name of political parties then they should be considered as marked ballots.

For them, Acebedo’s decision did not show whether the Torres vs. HRET case has the same circumstances as the Pates vs. Almirante election case.

The commissioners said the names of the parties may have been written on the line for senators and as such would have been considered markings or that it could be written on the line for party-list representatives which would have shown that the voters were misinformed of the system of partylist voting.

“At any rate, in case of doubt s to the validity of the ballots, such doubt should be resolved in favor of its validity so as not to disenfranchise the voters,” the commissioners said.

The resolution was signed by Comelec chairman Jose Melo, commissioners Rene Sarmiento, Nicodemo Ferrer, Moslemen Macarambon, Leonardo Leonida and Lucenito Tagle.

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Written by admin · Filed Under Misamis Oriental