56 electoral cases filed before House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal

MANILA, Philippines – With the opening of the 15th Congress a little over a week away, 56 electoral protests have already been filed with the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET) against the lawmakers who won in the country’s first automated elections last May 10.

Outgoing Speaker Prospero Nograles said the cases filed with the HRET appeared to be more numerous than those filed during the 14th Congress.

The HRET is composed of three Supreme Court justices and six House members.

Among those who filed their electoral protests were former executive secretary Eduardo Ermita against his winning rival Batangas Rep. Tomas Apacible, contesting the latter’s 22,024-vote lead.

Leyte Rep. Lucy Torres-Gomez is also facing a protest filed by Eufrocino Codilla Jr. who is questioning her qualifications to hold office, while former first lady and Ilocos Norte Rep. Imelda Marcos is being challenged by defeated congressional candidate Mariano Nalupta Jr.

Former justice secretary Agnes Devanadera is questioning the qualifications of Quezon Rep. Wilfredo Mark Enverga in her protest while former Quezon City Rep. Matias Defensor filed a case against Rep. Jorge Banal.

Party-list congressmen have not been spared from electoral protests, including Bayan Muna party-list Reps. Teodoro Casiño and Neri Colmenares.

The two leftist congressmen are facing protest cases from former party-list representative and retired general Jovito Palparan Jr.

Other House members facing electoral protests include Reps. Herminia Roman (Bataan), Vincent Crisologo (Quezon City), Eufranio Eriguel (La Union), Randolph Ting (Cagayan), Monique Yazmin Lagdameo (Makati City), Edwin Olivares (Parañaque), Rodolfo Fariñas (Ilocos Norte), Rosenda Ocampo (Manila), Nancy Catamco (North Cotabato), Anna Christina Go (Isabela), Jesus Emmanuel Paras (Bukidnon), Justin Marc Chipeco (Laguna), Fernando Gonzales (Albay), Mary Mitzi Cajayon (Caloocan City), Rogelio Espina (Biliran), Marlen Abigail Binay (Makati City), Isidro Ungab (Davao City), Salvio Fortuno (Camarines Sur), Bai Sandra Sema (Maguindanao), Marie Jocelyn Bernos (Abra), Cesar Sarmiento (Catanduanes), Victorino Dennis Socrates (Palawan), Milagrosa Tan (Western Samar), Antonio Rafael Del Rosario (Davao del Norte) , Nelson Collantes (Batangas), Emil Ong (Northern Samar), Aurelio Gonzalez Jr. (Pampanga), Joselito Andrew Mendoza (Bulacan), Elmer Panotes (Camarines Norte), Renato Unico (Camarines Norte), Jerry Trenas (Iloilo), Mylene Garcia (Davao City), Tupay Loong (Sulu), Nur-ana Sahidulla (Sulu), Francisco Matugas (Surigao del Norte), Maximo Dalog (Mt. Province), Hadjiman Hataman-Salliman (Basilan), Leopoldo Bataoil (Pangasinan), Lord Allan Jay Velasco (Marinduque), and Pangalian Balindong (Lanao del Sur).

Voter’s ID

By the end of 2010, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) may be able to release the voter’s identification cards of some 25 million voters.

There were 50.8 million voters who registered for the May 10 local and national polls.

According to Comelec Commissioner Rene Sarmiento, the cleansing of voter’s lists began long before the election.

“But this was not completed, maybe about 700,000 (double and multiple registrants are still in the lists). With the new data capturing machines (DCMs) we can better track down these registrants,” he said.

The use of DCM is part of the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) project of the Comelec intended to weed out double and multiple registrants from its list of voters.

Using the machines, the Comelec gets the voters’ photographs and the digital images of their signatures and finger prints. And with the use of cross matching machines, these data will be compared, thus identifying those with double and multiple registrations.

The Comelec started using DCMs in 2004 but it had no machines to cross match the biometrics data. 

For the 2007 mid-term polls, the agency took the biometrics data of some 25 million voters but not all of them were issued IDs. Last year, the Comelec stopped distributing the IDs to concentrate on the preparation for the May 10 automated election.

In September 2009, the Comelec awarded a P1.5-billion contract to supply the AFIS machines to the joint venture of Unison Computer System Inc., Lamco Paper Products Co. Inc. and NEC Philippines Inc.

The joint venture will provide more than 1,600 DCMs to be used in the voter’s registration next month.

The Comelec is also studying how it can fast track the identification of voters who have already died. With Sheila Crisostomo