Title
Alfonso vs. Commission on Elections
Case
G.R. No. 107847
Decision Date
Jun 2, 1994
Irma Alfonso sought to claim votes for her deceased father, Pedro, in a 1992 Manila councilor race. COMELEC ruled votes for Pedro as stray, crediting only "Alfonso" or "Irma Alfonso" votes. Supreme Court upheld COMELEC, dismissing her petition.
deceased candidate
stray votes
election protest

Case Summary (G.R. No. 107847)

Factual Background

Pedro Alfonso was a candidate for city councilor for the First District of Manila, a district entitled to elect six councilors. Pedro Alfonso died on the eve of the May 11, 1992 election. At about 2:45 A.M. on May 11, 1992, petitioner filed a certificate of candidacy in substitution for her deceased father. After the City Board of Canvassers initially canvassed the election returns, the announced results listed votes under the name "Pedro Alfonso," and the canvass apparently credited those votes in a manner that affected the order of candidates. Private respondent Alberto A. Domingo filed a petition to have the votes cast for Pedro Alfonso declared stray and to be proclaimed as the sixth winning candidate.

Proceedings Before the COMELEC and the City Board of Canvassers

On June 3, 1992, the COMELEC granted Domingo’s petition, declared all votes cast in favor of Pedro Alfonso as stray votes, and directed that only votes bearing the name "Alfonso" or "Irma Alfonso" be credited to petitioner; the Commission instructed the City Board of Canvassers to reconvene and proclaim the winners. Petitioner filed a petition in this Court challenging that resolution; the Court dismissed it on June 16, 1992 in G.R. No. 105577 for lack of grave abuse of discretion. The City Board of Canvassers then sought clarification from the COMELEC whether a recount should be conducted. On November 4, 1992, the COMELEC clarified that the Board should reconvene and canvass the election returns "without opening any ballot box containing the official ballots" and again directed that only votes bearing the name "Alfonso" or "Irma Alfonso" be credited to petitioner.

Petitioner’s Motion for Reconsideration and Subsequent Acts

Petitioner moved for partial reconsideration of the November 4, 1992 Order, invoking Section 234 of the Omnibus Election Code and asking for a recount and that all votes cast in favor of Pedro Alfonso be credited to her as Irma "Pete" Alfonso. The COMELEC denied that motion on November 23, 1992 and directed the City Board to implement its prior order. The City Board reconvened and produced canvass totals showing Domingo ahead of petitioner, and it denied petitioner’s motion to exclude or set aside seven hundred forty election returns which supposedly omitted her name; the Board resolved that Domingo appeared to be the winning candidate and scheduled proclamation. Petitioner filed a notice of appeal to the COMELEC but did not pursue it owing to the temporary restraining order issued by this Court in the present petition.

Issues Presented to the Court

Petitioner framed three issues for resolution: whether petitioner may still question the COMELEC’s ruling that votes cast in favor of the deceased Pedro Alfonso should be considered stray votes; whether the COMELEC acted with grave abuse of discretion in denying petitioner’s motion for a recount of the ballots under Section 234, Omnibus Election Code; and whether the issues raised were ripe for judicial determination.

The Court’s Disposition

The Court dismissed the petition for lack of merit and lifted the temporary restraining order issued on December 8, 1992. The opinion was delivered by Quiason, J. The following justices concurred: Feliciano, Padilla, Bidin, Davide, Jr., Romero, Bellosillo, Melo, and Vitug. Narvasa, C.J., Cruz, Regalado, Puno, and Kapunan did not take part in the decision.

Legal Basis and Reasoning

The Court first found that the question whether the votes cast for Pedro Alfonso were stray votes had already been conclusively addressed by the COMELEC and this Court in the earlier proceeding, G.R. No. 105577, where the Court dismissed petitioner’s challenge to the COMELEC’s June 3, 1992 resolution for lack of grave abuse of discretion; therefore, that issue could not be relitigated in the present petition. On the recount issue, the Court held that a prayer for reopening ballot boxes or conducting a recount was not a proper matter for a pre-proclamation controversy. The Court relied upon its prior decisions, notably Chavez v. Comelec and Sanchez v. Comelec, to restate the settled principle that errors in the appreciation of ballots by election inspectors are matters for election protest and not for pre-proclamation recount or reappreciation under Section 234. The Court emphasized that the appreciation of ballots is a function performed by the boards of election inspectors at the precinct level and is not part of the proceedings of the board of canvassers for purposes of pre-proclamation remedies under Section 241. The Court reiterated that the scope of pre-proclamation controversy is limited to the specific issues enumerated in Section 243 and related provisions, and that a recount in pre-proclamation proceedings is permissible only when the canvassed returns are incomplete, contain material defects (Section 234), appear to have been tampered with, falsified, or prepared under duress (Section 235), or contain discrepancies affecting the result (Section 236). Absent such a showing, the canvassed returns must be prima facie considered valid.

Application of Law to the Facts

Applying these principles, the Court found that petitioner did not establish any of the narrow grounds that would permit reopening of ballots in a pre-proclamation proceeding. Petitioner’s contention that some election returns omitted her name or failed to d

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