G.R. No. 149147 - FELIX BAROT, VS. COMMISSION ON ELECTIONS CITY BOARD OF CANVASSERS OF TANJAY CITY AND ROLANDO TABALOC.D E C I S I O N - Supreme Court E-Library

Ruling

WHEREFORE, the premises considered, this Commission RESOLVED, as it hereby RESOLVES, to GRANT the instant petition requesting for authority to correct erroneous entries in the certificate of canvass of votes and proclamation of winning candidates for city offices in the City of Tanjay, Negros Oriental. The proclamation of herein respondent FELIX BAROT as the tenth (10 th ) winning candidate for the position of Member of Sangguniang Panlungsod of Tanjay City is hereby ordered SUSPENDED and/or if one has already been made, the same is hereby ordered ANNULED . ACCORDINGLY, the City Board of Canvassers of Tanjay City is hereby directed to RECONVENE and effect the necessary corrections in the Certificates of Canvass and Proclamation of Winning Candidates in the City of Tanjay and on the basis thereof PROCLAIM the winning candidates according to their ranks. (Underscoring supplied) Hence, the present petition upon the following grounds: 1. The respondent COMELEC denied the petitioner his day in Court when it railroaded the hearing of the case in the Commission a quo . While it gave the petitioner the opportunity to be heard, the observance of due process was but a farce and diluted exercise. 2. This COMELEC had no jurisdiction to rule on the Petition filed by the City Board of Canvassers of Tanjay City because it was filed outside the mandatory periods for filing petitions of this nature and that there is no proof that proper filing and docketing fees have been paid. 3. The respondent City Board of Canvassers of Tanjay City is not a proper party in filing the original petition before the COMELEC. The filing of the petition [SPC-01-195] does not speak well of what the COMELEC stands for, which is an impartial body and does not side with any candidate or party. 4. The correction of manifest errors is proper only before proclamation of a winning candidate[;] after proclamation[,] the proper action is an election contest. 5. The private respondent Rolando Tabaloc has filed an Election Protest now docketed as EPC NO. 2001-51, this change of position of respondent Tabaloc should be construed as a tacit recognition of the due election of your petitioner Felix Barot. [10] By Resolution of August 21, 2001, this Court granted a Temporary Restraining Order [11] enjoining the COMELEC and the BOC to cease and desist from implementing the assailed COMELEC Resolution of August 3, 2001. In the present petition, petitioner posits that as the dates of hearing of the petition scheduled by the COMELEC were "too successive in nature without taking into account that petitioner comes from the province," he was denied due process, and had he been given his day, he would have proven his detractors wrong. [12] And petitioner maintains that the COMELEC has no jurisdiction over the petition as it was filed beyond the reglementary period. For, so petitioner contends, since the proclamation was made on May 17, 2001, the petition to correct manifest error should have been filed with