Title
Dimaporo vs. Commission on Elections
Case
G.R. No. 93201-04
Decision Date
Jun 26, 1990
Election candidates challenged contested returns in ARMM, alleging fraud and statistical improbability. Comelec excluded some returns but upheld others; Supreme Court dismissed petitions, emphasizing pre-proclamation limits and proper remedies via election protests.
regional elections
procedural requirements
electoral process

Case Summary (G.R. No. 93201-04)

Factual Background: G.R. Nos. 93201-04 (Sulu)

In G.R. Nos. 93201-04, petitioners challenged the inclusion in the canvass of certain election returns arising from precincts of municipalities in the Province of Sulu, consisting of Parang (fifty precincts), Maimbung (thirty-four precincts), Lugus (twenty precincts), Luuk (twenty precincts), Panamao (fifty-one precincts), Panglima Estino (also known as New Panamao) (thirty-six precincts), Pandami (eighteen precincts), and Tongkil (sixteen precincts), for a total of two hundred fifty-nine precincts.

During the canvass by the Sulu Provincial Board of Canvassers, petitioners raised objections to the inclusion of the questioned returns. After adverse rulings, petitioners appealed to the Comelec, where the appeals were docketed as SPC Nos. 90-002, 90-004, and 90-017. Petitioners repeated the objections during the canvass of certificates of canvass by the Regional Board of Canvassers and, after an adverse ruling, appealed again to the Comelec, docketed as SPC No. 90-019. All appeals involving the questioned election returns and the certificates of canvass from Sulu were consolidated before the Comelec.

The common theory in the three appeals from the Provincial Board of Canvassers was that the questioned returns were “spurious, obviously manufactured and/or statistically improbable.” The appeal from the Regional Board of Canvassers alleged that the certificates of canvass were “falsified” because they included the same election returns previously contested before the Provincial Board, and that the Regional Board proceeded with the canvass notwithstanding the alleged perfection of petitioners’ appeals.

Comelec’s Ruling and Partial Relief in G.R. Nos. 93201-04

By a Resolution dated twenty-one March 1990, the First Division of the Comelec dismissed all appeals for lack of merit and for lack of jurisdiction. It held, among others, that the objections were “merely generalizations,” that petitioners failed to adduce substantial evidence before the Provincial Board to support the factual basis of the objections, and that petitioners failed to file a written intent to appeal from the Provincial Board’s rulings.

Petitioners then appealed to the Comelec En Banc. On ten May 1990, the Comelec En Banc modified the First Division’s Resolution. It ordered the exclusion from the canvass of the election returns from eighty-eight (eighty-eight) precincts in the municipalities covered in Sulu for being “statistically improbable.” It dismissed the appeals as to the remaining questioned returns.

In ordering the exclusion, the Comelec En Banc relied on the doctrine in Lagumbay v. Commission on Elections and treated the questioned returns as falling within the factual scenario addressed in Lagumbay—namely, returns exhibiting uniformity so extreme as to show obvious manufacture, such that fraud was apparent from the return itself and did not require evidence aliunde. The Comelec En Banc applied the Lagumbay approach in a selective manner: returns matching that precise situation were excluded as “statistically improbable,” while returns showing variations from that extreme scenario were not automatically excluded.

Factual Background: G.R. No. 93205 (Tawi-Tawi)

In G.R. No. 93205, the controversy involved election returns from the Municipality of Languyan in the Province of Tawi-Tawi. Petitioners objected to the inclusion of election returns from thirty-six (thirty-six) precincts, alleging that those returns were “obviously manufactured” because the results were “statistically improbable.” Petitioners contended that in the questioned precincts, one hundred percent (one hundred percent) or ninety-nine percent (ninety-nine percent) of the registered voters were recorded as having cast their votes, and that private respondents received all the votes while petitioners received a uniform zero vote.

The Tawi-Tawi Provincial Board of Canvassers overruled petitioners’ objections for failure to present evidence aliunde of the alleged fraud. On appeal, the Second Division of the Comelec reversed by a Decision dated seventeen April 1990, ordering the exclusion of fifteen (fifteen) election returns under the Lagumbay doctrine. It sustained inclusion of the remaining twenty-one (twenty-one) election returns, reasoning that they were outside the Lagumbay ambit because not all LDP candidates received exactly the same votes; some non-official candidates received differing vote numbers, and in many but not all cases, candidates of petitioners’ party were credited with zero votes.

Petitioners sought further relief from the Comelec En Banc via a Motion for Partial Reconsideration, which was denied by a Resolution dated ten May 1990. Petitioners then filed a petition for certiorari challenging the En Banc disposition.

Factual Background: G.R. No. 93502 (Maguindanao)

In G.R. No. 93502, petitioners contested election returns arising from canvassing by the Maguindanao Provincial Board of Canvassers in municipalities including Pagalunggan, Maganoy, Ampatuan, Sultan sa Barokis, Buluan, and Talayan. Petitioners appealed adverse rulings on twenty-six February 1990 to the Comelec, docketed as SPC No. 90-016. A day later, petitioners filed an “Amended Appeal” adding objections involving Datu Piang, Datu Paglas, and South Upi, but the amended pleading did not specify which election returns were contested and did not state grounds.

On thirteen March 1990, eighteen days after service of the written rulings, petitioners filed another document listing the contested returns from the added municipalities and alleging multiple grounds. These included: allegations that an unusually high proportion of registered voters in certain precincts were recorded as having voted; claims that election returns were prepared elsewhere than at the precincts, such as in the offices of municipal mayors; assertions that in some precincts, members of Boards of Election Inspectors did not report to their polling places so no elections were conducted; allegations that in some precincts votes counted exceeded registered voters; allegations that in other precincts votes counted exceeded voters who allegedly voted; claims that in some barangays residents evacuated due to a shooting war between the MNLF and the MILF, resulting in no elections yet returns showed very high voting percentages; and claims that certain precincts showed returns prepared by only one person. Petitioners also requested that voter’s affidavits and voter lists for contested precincts be subjected to expert examination of signatures and thumbmarks.

The Comelec Second Division, in a Decision dated seven May 1990, dismissed the appeal after addressing each objection, except for returns from Precincts 9 and 10 of the Municipality of Talayan which the Comelec excluded from the canvass because the Provincial Board’s minutes reflected that the Boards of Election Inspectors of Talayan had not been summoned to explain omissions of material data. Petitioners moved for reconsideration, but the Comelec En Banc, in a Decision dated four June 1990, denied the motion and sustained the Second Division.

Consolidation and Interim Restraint

The Court issued a Temporary Restraining Order dated seventeen May 1990 in G.R. Nos. 93201-04 and 93205, requiring the Comelec to refrain from proclaiming winning candidates for Governor and Vice-Governor of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao pending further orders, while allowing the Comelec to continue canvassing election returns from the remaining precincts in the covered areas. Subsequently, by a Court Resolution dated seventeen May 1990, G.R. Nos. 93201-04 and 93205 were consolidated.

Petitioners’ Issues in G.R. Nos. 93201-04 and 93205

Petitioners in the consolidated petitions raised the principal issues of whether the Comelec gravely abused its discretion (first) by allowing the inclusion of the remaining contested election returns in Sulu and Tawi-Tawi despite applying “statistical improbability” with what petitioners regarded as strict and restrictive limitations; and (second) by disregarding evidence aliunde allegedly submitted to prove the returns were “obviously manufactured.” Petitioners sought that the Court set aside the Comelec En Banc decision insofar as it refused to reject and exclude other election returns on the statistical improbability ground.

During proceedings, private respondents filed an Urgent Motion to Lift the Temporary Restraining Order on twenty-one May 1990, arguing that even assuming petitioners’ requested nullification, it would not affect the lead of private respondents. Private respondents submitted tables derived from the official certificates of canvass in the provinces involved, reflecting vote counts and contested votes and expressing the effect of deducting contested votes on the lead totals. The Court noted that alleged clerical errors in the private respondents’ presented tables were corrected and that petitioners did not successfully contest the substantial correctness of the data relied upon.

Court’s Approach: No Need to Broaden Lagumbay and Speed of Pre-Proclamation Resolution

The Court held that, based on the provided computations and the substantial correctness of the vote data not having been successfully contested, it was unnecessary to resolve the “central issue” petitioners posed—whether the Lagumbay doctrine on “statistically improbable” returns should be re-examined to broaden its scope so that election returns deviating to varying degrees from the Lagumbay factual scenario could likewise be excluded without evidence aliunde. The Court reasoned that, even if all returns challenged on statistical improbability grounds were excluded, private respondents would still maintain a substantial margin over petitioners’ total votes.

The Court also emphasized the need for speedy resolution of pre-proclamation controversies. It considered the elapsed time since the election on seventeen February 1990, during which

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