G.R. No. 31948 , November 15, 1929
PABLO A. CRUZ vs. ATILANO DE GUZMAN

FACTS

Pablo A. Cruz and Atilano de Guzman were candidates for municipal president of Angat, Bulacan, in the June 5, 1928 elections. The municipal board of canvassers proclaimed De Guzman elected with 787 votes against Cruz’s 731, a majority of 56 votes. Cruz and his fellow partisans contested the election, alleging irregularities by election inspectors in precincts 1, 2, 4, and 6. The trial court found that Cruz obtained 738 votes and De Guzman 658, declaring Cruz elected by an 80-vote majority. De Guzman appealed, assigning errors primarily concerning the trial court’s rejection of 131 ballots cast for him and its counting of 103 ballots for Cruz, all on the ground that they were “marked ballots.” The trial court based its ruling on a finding that De Guzman and his followers engaged in a general scheme to bribe voters and require identifying marks on ballots.

ISSUE

Whether the ballots in question, where the names of candidates for councilor were written at the extreme right, extreme left, or in the middle with spaces between names and surnames, constitute “marked ballots” that should be invalidated under the Election Law.

RULING

No. The Supreme Court reversed the trial court’s judgment. The ballots in question are not marked within the meaning of the law. The Court held that marks on ballots must be apparent from the ballots themselves and cannot be established solely by extrinsic evidence (aliunde). While some witnesses testified to a scheme requiring specific ballot preparation as an identifying mark, their testimony was deemed unreliable due to partiality and lack of strong corroboration. Furthermore, the majority of the 103 ballots counted for Cruz were prepared in the identical manner as the 131 ballots rejected for De Guzman. Since the ballots themselves were clean and showed no intrinsic distinguishing marks, they should all be considered valid. Consequently, adding the 131 valid ballots to De Guzman’s tally and deducting the 103 from Cruz’s results in a net gain of 28 votes for De Guzman. This reverses Cruz’s 80-vote majority, giving De Guzman a final majority of 51 votes. Appellant Atilano de Guzman is declared the municipal president elect of Angat, Bulacan.