Petition seeking to void election of 12 senators junked

MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court (SC) has dismissed a petition seeking to nullify the election and proclamation of 12 senators in the 2013 polls.

In a seven-page ruling promulgated last July 14, the high court denied for lack of merit the petition filed by the Bangon Pilipinas party of Jesus Is Lord Church Worldwide founder and losing presidential candidate Eddie Villanueva.

The SC held that the issues raised in the petition – the alleged privatization of the election process and unsatisfactory system capabilities of the PCOS machines – have been passed upon by the tribunal in its previous rulings. The court also stressed that the petitioner failed to demonstrate that it is entitled to injunctive relief.

The SC averred that the party “should have pursued the proper remedy by filing an election protest.”

“The court cannot issue an injunction based on factual matters yet to be established and solely on legal arguments already debunked in past case precedents,” it pointed out.

In its petition, Bangon Pilipinas asked the SC to issue a writ declaring null and void the proclamation of 12 senators by the Commission on Elections (Comelec), claiming discrepancies in the election results brought about by an alleged manipulation of 37 million votes.

Bangon also asked the court to stop the use of PCOS machines and the Automated Election System of Smartmatic and the source code of Dominion Voting System Corp. until the tribunal resolves the issue.

Petitioner also argued that the Comelec practically privatized the electoral process and left it to the control and supervision of Smartmatic and Dominion, claiming the group actually proclaimed the 12 winning senators prematurely.