Group tells Comelec: Refund protest fees

An anti-graft and corruption group on Monday urged the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to refund at least P3.7 million worth of filing fees paid for 37 unresolved electoral-protests cases filed since 2007. In a statement, the Center for Anti-Graft and Corruption Prevention Inc. (The Center) said that the law obliges the Comelec to return the fees paid by those who filed protests that were not resolved by the poll body.

“It [failure to resolve protest cases] totally constitutes direct violations to our anti-graft laws,” the group said in a statement.

On Friday, The Center showed reporters documents proving that the Comelec failed to decide on some 37 cases related to the midterm elections in 2007. The group said that eight cases remain unresolved at the commission en banc level, and 29 more were undecided at the Electoral Contests Adjudication Division of the Comelec.

Lane Afable, The Center’s secretary general, said that the commission’s failure to resolve the cases within three years signify “blunt and worst disservice to the public.” Local and national elections are conducted every three years in the Philippines.

He alleged that besides causing aggrieved parties to spend P100,000 each in filing fees, the protesters were also seemingly “hijacked” in the end with the non-resolution of their complaints.

Against the law

Afable noted that failure to resolve the cases violated several laws, including the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards of Public Officials and Employees.

He added that the aggrieved parties and the Office of the Ombudsman should stop tolerating the non-resolution of protest cases by the Comelec so that “it won’t be repeated again.” In the aftermath of the recently concluded May election, some 95 new electoral cases have been filed in the Comelec.

Afable also called on the commission to be transparent by publicly disclosing the number of electoral protests that it had failed to resolve in the past three elections—1998, 2001 and 2004. He noted that “victims of these corrupt acts” must receive justice under the new administration of incoming President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino 3rd.

The resolution of electoral protests of the past three presidential and midterm elections could be a part of Aquino’s efforts to identify the roots of corruption in the country, Afable added.

“For his part, Comelec Chairman Jose Melo, should look for measures that would pave the way for possible repayment to victims of such disservice and incompetence by Comelec at the earliest possible time to repair it and put a closure to the issue,” he said in the statement. –BERNICE CAMILLE V. BAUZON REPORTER, Manila Times