This case has been cited 3 times or more.
|
2013-04-11 |
BERSAMIN, J. |
||||
| The picture images of the ballots are electronic documents that are regarded as the equivalents of the original official ballots themselves.[6] In Vinzons-Chato v. House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal,[7] the Court held that "the picture images of the ballots, as scanned and recorded by the PCOS, are likewise 'official ballots' that faithfully capture in electronic form the votes cast by the voter, as defined by Section 2(3) of R.A. No. 9369. As such, the printouts thereof are the functional equivalent of the paper ballots filled out by the voters and, thus, may be used for purposes of revision of votes in an electoral protest." | |||||
|
2013-03-12 |
CARPIO, J. |
||||
| In the recent consolidated cases of Vinzons-Chato v. House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal and Panotes and Panotes v. House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal and Vinzons-Chato,[33] the Court ruled that "the picture images of the ballots, as scanned and recorded by the PCOS, are likewise 'official ballots' that faithfully capture in electronic form the votes cast by the voter, as defined by Section 2 (3) of R.A. No. 9369."[34] The Court declared that the printouts of the ballot images in the CF cards "are the functional equivalent of the paper ballots filled out by the voters and, thus, may be used for purposes of revision of votes in an electoral protest." In short, both the ballot images in the CF cards and the printouts of such images have the same evidentiary value as the official physical ballots filled up by the voters. | |||||
|
2013-03-12 |
CARPIO, J. |
||||
| x x x. Worth noting also is that these 8,387 ballots all came from 53 clustered precincts specifically pinpointed by Maliksi as his pilot precincts (which is 20% of the total precincts he protested) thereby affecting a total of 33.38% or more than one-third (1/3) of the total ballots cast in those precincts. We find this too massive to have not been detected on election day, too specific to be random and too precise to be accidental which leaves a reasonable mind no other conclusion except that those 8,387 cases of double-shading were purposely machinated. These dubious and highly suspicious circumstances left us with no other option but to dispense with the physical ballots and resort to their digital images. To recount the tampered ballots will only yield us tampered results defeating the point of this appeal.[10] | |||||