Supreme Court asked to compel Comelec to implement random manual audit

MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court (SC) was asked to act on a petition of Ang Kapatiran Party (AKP) to compel the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to strictly implement the random manual audit of results of the May 10 automated polls as required by law.

In a motion filed last Monday, the AKP of losing presidential candidate John Carlos de los Reyes asked the High Court to act on their May 24 petition seeking issuance of a temporary restraining order compelling Comelec to restart its ongoing manual audit of precincts that were chosen last May 10 due to possible inclusion of tampered ballots.

Norman Cabrera, secretary-general of the party, said they filed the motion to resolve the petition due to lack of action from the SC.

“We were constrained to file the motion because one week after we filed our petition on May 24, there’s been no action from the SC despite the fact that it is an urgent case involving a TRO on a very important component of the 2010 automated elections,” he said.

The Court is in recess and due to resume session on June 15, at which time AKP’s petition could possibly be calendared for deliberation.

Cabrera argued that waiting for the action of the SC upon resumption of session may be too late as winners in the presidential and vice presidential contests are expected to be proclaimed on Monday.

AKP, in its motion, cited Rule 7, Section 6(g) of the Internal Rules of the SC, which states: “When the Court is in recess and the urgency of the case requires immediate action, the Clerk of Court or the Division Clerk of Court shall personally transmit the rollo to the Chief Justice or the Division Chairperson for his or her action.”

The law authorizing the use of the Automated Election System (AES) by the Comelec (RA 8436 of 1997, as amended by RA 9369 in 2007) provided for a random manual audit (RMA) precisely to validate its accuracy and for the general public to gauge how well (or how poorly) it worked.

Under Comelec rules, the RMA “shall be conducted on May 10, 2010, immediately after the shutdown of the PCOS machine after completion of all its functions” and “shall be conducted continuously until terminated. The RMA may, however, take occasional fifteen (15) to thirty (30) minute recess for meals and bathroom breaks.” – With Rainier Allan Ronda