G.R. No. 26243, March 31, 1927
JOSE GEUKEKO, petitioner-appellant, vs. ANDRES PASCUAL, respondent-appellant.

FACTS

In the June 2, 1925 elections for Governor of Rizal, Andres Pascual was proclaimed the winner by the Provincial Board of Canvassers with a plurality of 229 votes over Jose Geukeko. Geukeko filed an election protest with the Court of First Instance (CFI) of Rizal. After a revision of ballots, the CFI credited Pascual with 13,196 votes, giving him a plurality of 20 votes over Geukeko, and dismissed the protest. Both parties appealed to the Supreme Court.

ISSUE

1. Whether the trial court erred in its appreciation of contested ballots, specifically in rejecting ballots claimed by Geukeko and admitting ballots claimed by Pascual.
2. Whether the trial court erred in not upholding the original election returns from precincts where ballot boxes showed evidence of tampering.

RULING

The Supreme Court AFFIRMED the CFI’s judgment, declaring Andres Pascual the legally elected Governor.

1. On the Appreciation of Ballots:
* The Court clarified the rule for identifying candidates on ballots. For parties to the contest (protestant/protestee), both the Christian name and surname must appear to identify the candidate. However, for votes cast for other registered candidates (not parties to the contest), writing either the Christian name or the surname alone is sufficient, provided it identifies a registered candidate for that specific office. The trial court’s stricter criteria were relaxed accordingly.
* Applying this and established rules from *Cailles vs. Gomez*, the Court credited Geukeko with an additional 443 valid votes from his claimed rejected ballots. Conversely, Pascual was credited with 481 valid votes from his claimed rejected ballots.

2. On Tampered Ballot Boxes:
* The Court found the evidence conclusive that the ballot boxes from several precincts (Cardona, Tanay, Jalajala, Malabon, Tagig, Pateros) had been tampered with after the original canvass. Following settled doctrine, the original count as shown in the election returns must prevail in such cases. This resulted in Pascual gaining an additional 122 votes from these precincts.

3. On Other Claimed Invalid Votes:
* The Court found the assignments of error from both parties regarding additional invalid votes credited to the opponent to be largely inaccurate and unsupported by the record. A review showed that eliminating the few questionable votes would not materially affect the result and might even increase Pascual’s lead.

CONCLUSION:
After a comprehensive review, the Supreme Court determined that Andres Pascual won the election with a plurality of at least 180 votes. The decision of the CFI was affirmed, with costs against protestant-appellant Jose Geukeko.