Case Summary (G.R. No. L-5290)
Violation of the Election Law
- The defendants were accused of violating the Election Law by illegally taking certain election-related documents and ballot boxes from the municipal secretary's office.
- The incident occurred following the general election held on November 5, 1907, in Sanchez Mira, Cagayan, where Juan Academia and Cosme Marzan were elected as municipal president and vice-president, respectively.
- The defendants were convicted and sentenced to three months' imprisonment and ordered to pay one-third of the costs of the action.
Circumstances of the Election
- The election involved two pairs of opposing candidates for municipal president and vice-president.
- After the polls closed, the board of inspectors counted the ballots and confirmed the election results.
- The municipal secretary, Liberato Lopez, received the ballot boxes and other election materials but faced difficulties accessing his office due to a locked door.
Accessing the Office
- Lopez, unable to wait for his clerk to arrive with the key, used an iron bar to force entry into his office with the help of a policeman.
- After securing the election materials in a wardrobe, Lopez took the key with him to his landlord's house, instructing the chief of police to monitor the office due to the broken door.
Discovery of the Theft
- Later that night, Lopez discovered that the keys to the wardrobe had gone missing.
- Upon returning to the municipal building, he found the wardrobe open and the ballot boxes and some papers missing.
- Lopez reported the theft to the justice of the peace and returned to the office with law enforcement, where they initially could not locate the ballot boxes.
Recovery of the Ballot Boxes
- Upon a second search of the secretary's office, the ballot boxes were found beneath a table, with their locks intact but the seals torn.
- The torn seals indicated that ballots could have been inserted into the boxes despite them being locked.
- The election was subsequently protested by Felipe Navarro, leading to the court declaring the election null and void.
Evidence Against the Defendants
- The prosecution established that the defendants were responsible for the crime through witness...continue reading