G.R. No. 134169 - SADIKUL SAHALI, VS. COMMISSION ON ELECTIONS (COMELEC) AND HADJA JUBAIDA H. MATBA.D E C I S I O N - Supreme Court E-Library

Ruling

Accordingly, respondent Matba prayed that the instant petition be likewise dismissed for being moot and academic. This Court agrees with respondents. Indeed, it can be gleaned from the records that shortly after the promulgation of Minute Resolution No. 98-1959, Hon. Nur G. Jaafar, Congressman, Lone District of Tawi-Tawi, wrote a letter to the COMELEC on July 3, 1998 contending that the Commission was misinformed and misled into promulgating the assailed Minute Resolution. Congressman Jaafar alleges the following to be the correct facts: That, the May 11, 1998 elections in Tawi-Tawi were generally clean, honest and peaceful. The votes were casted ( sic ), machine counted and canvassed. The winning candidates were duly proclaimed and have taken their respective oath of office prior to the promulgation of said questionable Resolution; That, the counting of votes were done through the automated counting machine which was pre-tested a few days before the election by Comelec technicians and conducted in the presence of representatives of all political parties. The same machine were used (sic) in the counting of votes by municipalities also in the presence of the Military, Police, Namfrel, Comelec and representative of all parties concerned which eventually led to the proclamation of the winning candidates for various positions; That, the recommendation of Mr. Idlana Mangona to conduct a manual recount because of system failure and/or total breakdown of the machine should not be used solely as a basis in promulgating said Resolution because Mr. Mangona was not the Comelec-In-Charge of the province during the elections, neither is he in the position to technically attest to the defectiveness of the counting machine. Atty. Alloden Dalaig of the Comelec Central Offices was the one assigned as Chairman of the Provincial Board of Canvassers (PBC) and designated Comelec-In-Charge for the entire Province of Tawi-Tawi. Also, neither can Bgen. Espinosa equate the situation in Sulu and Maguindanao to that of Tawi-Tawi as it was an entirely different situation, besides the General was not physically present on the ground. On the contrary, the post-election report of Col. Nelson Allaga C0 8MBLT who was the overall-in-charge of securing the last elections in the province show otherwise; (Attached letter of Col. Allaga to Honorable Chairman Pardo); That, the questioned Resolution triggered by the unsworn letter request of Hadja Jubaida Matba and Ismael Abubakar, defeated gubernatorial and congressional candidates, respectively, should not have been given due course considering that the same was not even calendared much more part of the agenda of the Commission of June 29, 1998; and Lastly and more important of all, the undersigned and other wining candidates were not given due notice and allowed to present their side thereby depriving them of their right to be heard by the Commission, a clear violation of their Constitutional right to due process. [18] On July 10, 1