G.R. No. 157171 - Garcia vs. Court of Appeals

Private complainant Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. filed a complaint-affidavit alleging vote reduction during the May 8, 1995 senatorial elections.
An information dated March 30, 1998 was filed in the Regional Trial Court of Alaminos, charging Herminio R. Romero, Renato R. Viray, Rachel Palisoc, Francisca de Vera, and Arsenia B. Garcia with violation of Section 27(b) of Republic Act No. 6646.
The information alleged that on or about May 11, 1995, during canvassing in the Municipality of Alaminos, Province of Pangasinan, the accused, conspiring together, willfully and unlawfully decreased the votes received by Senator Pimentel from six thousand nine hundred ninety-eight (6,998) votes as shown in the total of one hundred fifty-nine (159) precincts to one thousand nine hundred twenty-one (1,921) as reflected in SOV No. 008423 and Certificate of Canvass (COC) No. 436156, a difference alleged to be five thousand seventy-seven (5,077) votes.

The Regional Trial Court rendered its Decision dated September 11, 2000 acquitting all accused for insufficiency of evidence except Arsenia B. Garcia, whom it found guilty under Republic Act No. 6646, Section 27(b), stating a decrease of votes (stated in the Decision as 5,034) and citing BP Blg. 881; the RTC imposed a maximum penalty of six years, applied the Indeterminate Sentence Law to fix the minimum at six months, denied probation, ordered disqualification from public office, deprivation of suffrage, cancellation of bail, and commitment to the Bureau of Correctional Institution for Women.
The Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction with modification, increasing the minimum penalty from six months to one year, and denied petitioner's motion for reconsideration.
Arsenia B. Garcia appealed to the Supreme Court, assigning errors alleging factual insufficiency, absence of motive, improper reliance on petitioner's dictation by the secretary, failure to produce machine tapes, wrongful attribution to petitioner of entering figures in the COC, and absence of willful or intentional reduction.

After tallying votes from 159 precincts, precinct results were sealed and forwarded to the Municipal Board of Canvassers of Alaminos for canvassing.
Petitioner, as Chairman of the Municipal Board of Canvassers, read figures appearing in the precinct results; accused Viray, as Secretary, entered the numbers in the Statements of Votes (SOV).
Six Statements of Votes were prepared to reflect the votes of the 159 precincts.
Accused Palisoc and de Vera acted as tabulators and added subtotals using electrical adding machines and produced machine tapes.
The machine tapes of subtotals were handed to petitioner who read the subtotals; Viray recorded the subtotals; tabulators then added all subtotals to produce the grand total.
The machine tape showing the grand total was handed to petitioner who read the grand total, and Viray entered the figure read by petitioner in the grand total column of the Statement of Votes.
No question was raised at trial as to the correctness of the per-precinct figures or the subtotals in SOV Nos. 008417 to 008422, but a clear disc...(Subscriber-Only)

Whether violation of Section 27(b) of Republic Act No. 6646 is *mala in se* or *mala prohibita*.
Whether *good faith* or lack of criminal intent is a valid defense to a charge under Section 27(b).

Whether the Court of Appeals erred in accepting that Secretary Viray merely acted on what petitioner dictated and thus shifting responsibility.
Whether petitioner's failure to produce the machine tapes justified an adverse inference.

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