RTC junks group's petition to stop signature verification
Iloilo City -- The city and provincial offices of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) may continue with the verification of signatures gathered for the administration backed "people's initiative."
This after the Iloilo Regional Trial Court (RTC) dismissed the Petition for Prohibition with Prayer for Preliminary Injunction and Issuance of Temporary Restraining Order filed by a group of lawyers under the Ilonggo Movement Against Gloria's Cha-cha (I-March).
I-March made as respondents in the case Mayor Jerry Treñas, Comelec Regional Director Atty. Dennis Ausan and City and Provincial Election Officer Elizabeth Doronila.
In a decision penned by Judge Ma. Yolanda M. Panaguiton-Gaviño of RTC Branch 34, the court dismissed the petition for lack of jurisdiction.
The court ruled that the petition against Treñas should be dismissed as there is "no cause of action for prohibition against him. His inclusion as respondent in the petition is "without basis."
It added, "there is no allegation in the petition of any act of Treñas which petitioners seek to enjoin. The only allegation in the petition against the respondent mayor is that he was the one who brought the collected signatures as people's initiative to amend the Constitution to the different local offices of the Comelec for authentication."
The court also ruled the dismissal of the petition against Ausan and Doronila for failure of the petitioners to raise any objection on the matter before the Comelec Regional Office prior to bringing it to Court.
The court said, "the Comelec ought to be given the chance to clarify the conflicting interpretations on the signature verification."
"The rule gains significance in the light of petitioners' own admission in par 3 and 4 of the petition that while Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos may have made a statement that Comelec has authority to entertain any action for people's initiative, the Commission itself believes otherwise. It only goes that there are different opinions within the Comelec."
The decision also stated, "the present action for prohibition will not lie considering that there is an available and adequate remedy in the ordinary course of law for the annulment of the said action."
Although the action of the Comelec regional officer being assailed in the instant case is an exercise of the Comelec's purely ministerial functions over which the RTC have jurisdiction.
The ruling added, the Comelec en banc should be given an opportunity to review the actions of its regional officers. The issue on the competence of the regional office to conduct verification of signatures relative to peoples initiative to amend the Constitution "ought to be addressed and should be decided in the first instance by the Comelec en banc."
Judge Gaviño also stressed the respondent regional officers of the Comelec "performed a purely administrative function when they conducted verifications of signatures.
"A party aggrieved thereby must not merely initiate the prescribed administrative procedure to obtain relief but must also pursue it to its appropriate conclusion before seeking judicial intervention, in order to give administrative agency an opportunity to decide the matter by itself correctly and prevent unnecessary and premature resort to the court."
To note, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, Sr. witnessed the summary hearing for the petition held last Friday in which he criticized Judge Gaviño's handling of the case.
Among the convenors of I-March are lawyers Joshua Alim, Daniel Cartagena, Romeo Gerochi, and Leo Sombiro.
Alim said over ABS-CBN's TV Patrol sa Diyes that they respect the decision of the court.
He said, they may have lost the battle in the lower court but at least they have expressed their strong opposition to what they call as unconstitutional move of the administration.
Alim proudly claimed that they were the first in the country to bring to court the signature verification being made by the Comelec.
However, Alim said the battle is not yet over as they would file a motion for reconsideration as regards the court's ruling.
Even as he adds that the ruling will not prevent them from continuously protesting against the people's initiative drive of the administration.