Regional Trial Court Judges participating in the Round Table Discussion sponsored by Libertas in Marco Polo Hotel, Cebu City on 27 August 2010, revealed that proceedings in the election protests filed in connection with the 10 May 2010 elections have been stalled due to the unavailability of PCOS machines which will authenticate contested ballots.
In the rules of procedure promulgated by the Supreme Court, the authentication of each and every ballot is required, prior to the actual revision, to make sure that it was the same ballots cast and fed to the PCOS machine during the voting. According to the rules, “the authentication of the shall be through the use of PCOS machines actually used during the elections in the subject precinct, or by another device certified by the Commission to be capable of performing the desired authentication requirement through the use of the bar codes and the ultra-violet ray code detection mechanism” (section 6 [e], Rule 10, A.M. No. 10-4-1-SC).
However, Judge Ramon B. Daomilas, Jr., Presiding Judge of Branch 11, RTC-Cebu, shared that COMELEC, through Resolution No. 10-0665, has held in abeyance resolution of all requests by RTC judges for the transport of the PCOS machines used in the precincts involved in the election contests pending before them. While he was, at the beginning, confident that he would be able to comply with the 6-month timeline imposed by A.M. No. 10-4-1-SC, Judge Daomilas said he is no longer sure that he will not be able to comply with this directive. The COMELEC has not certified any other device, in lieu of the PCOS machine actually used, that is capable of performing authentication of the ballots.
In the same round table discussion, COMELEC Law Department Ferdinand Rafanan gave his personal views on some of the issues confronted by the poll body in handling the first nationwide automated election system. Meanwhile, Judge Gabriel T. Ingles, Presiding Judge of Branch 58, RTC-Cebu City, and Founder of the Cebu-Citizens Involvement and Maturation for People's Empowerment and Liberation (C-CIMPEL) presented the observations of civil society organizations. Atty. Michael Yu, President of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, Cebu Chapter, also shared his observations as a practitioner.
Retired Court of Appeals Justice and former COMELEC Commissioner Teresita Dy Liacco Flores joined the group in the evening as some of the judges discussed in more detail the challenges they have encountered in a smaller meeting.
The Young Lawyers Association of Cebu (YLAC) co-sponsored the event, with the support from the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) and the American Bar Association - Role of Law Initiative (ABA-ROLI).
