G.R. No. 43719, December 21, 1935
AURELIO CECILIO, petitioner-appellee, vs. JACINTO TOMACRUZ, respondent-appellant.

FACTS

In the 1934 elections for Governor of Nueva Ecija, the provincial board of canvassers proclaimed Jacinto Tomacruz as the winner over Aurelio Cecilio by a plurality of 654 votes. Cecilio filed an election protest. The Court of First Instance, after a revision of ballots, declared Cecilio the winner by 133 votes. Tomacruz appealed, assigning numerous errors in the court’s adjudication of ballots and vote counts in various precincts.

ISSUE

The core issue is whether the trial court correctly counted the ballots and computed the votes for the rival candidates, to determine who obtained a plurality of the legal votes and was thus legally elected Governor.

RULING

The Supreme Court modified the trial court’s decision. After reviewing the assigned errors, many of which were conceded by the appellee, the Court recalculated the votes. It found that in the contested and counter-contested precincts, Tomacruz obtained 4,903 votes and Cecilio obtained 4,352, giving Tomacruz a plurality of 551 votes in those precincts. The Court also addressed specific ballot issues, ruling, among other things, that ballots marked “Tomacruz” alone (without the Christian name) and ballots marked “T. Cruz” (as an abbreviation of Tomacruz) were valid votes for the protestee Tomacruz, as they sufficiently identified the candidate and were supported by his certificate of candidacy. After a complete review and recalculation, the Supreme Court reversed the trial court’s judgment and declared Jacinto Tomacruz to have been legally elected Governor of Nueva Ecija.

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