G.R. No. L-6496; January 27, 1954
LEOPOLDO R. JALANDONI, protestant-appellee, vs. DEMETRIO N. SARCON, protestee-appellant.

FACTS

Demetrio N. Sarcon and Leopoldo R. Jalandoni were candidates for Mayor of Midsayap, Cotabato, in the November 13, 1951 elections. The Municipal Board of Canvassers proclaimed Sarcon elected with 3,181 votes against Jalandoni’s 3,088 votes. Jalandoni filed an election protest in the Court of First Instance of Cotabato. The trial court, upon Jalandoni’s petition, directed the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) examiner Angel H. Gaffud to examine the ballots from precincts Nos. 19 and 34 to determine their genuineness. During trial, Jalandoni’s certificate of candidacy was admitted over Sarcon’s objection that the protest motion failed to allege its filing. The trial court nullified 226 ballots cast for Sarcon and declared Jalandoni the mayor-elect with a 133-vote majority. Sarcon appealed, initially to the Court of Appeals, but the case was certified to the Supreme Court due to a jurisdictional issue raised.

ISSUE

1. Whether the trial court acquired jurisdiction over the election protest despite the protest motion not explicitly alleging that Jalandoni filed his certificate of candidacy.
2. Whether the 226 ballots from precinct No. 19, declared spurious by the trial court, were correctly invalidated.

RULING

1. Yes, the trial court acquired jurisdiction. The Supreme Court held that while courts of first instance act as courts of special jurisdiction in election protests and require allegations of jurisdictional facts, the motion of protest substantially complied with the law. It alleged that Jalandoni was a “qualified elector and one of the registered candidates voted for” in the election. The Court ruled that the allegation of being a “registered candidate” necessarily implies the filing of the required certificate of candidacy, as one cannot be a candidate without filing it. The Court emphasized a liberal construction of election contest statutes to prevent the defeat of the people’s will by technical objections. The admission of the certificate of candidacy in evidence was proper to establish a material jurisdictional fact.
2. Partially. The Supreme Court, after its own examination of the disputed ballots, sustained the trial court’s finding that 211 of the 226 ballots were spurious and written by one hand, as concluded by the NBI handwriting expert. However, it found 15 ballots (Exhibits A-68, A-79, A-92, A-99, A-64, A-18, A-65, A-88, E-8, E-22, E-23, I, J-1, L, and L-1) to be legitimate and should be counted in favor of Sarcon. The Court provided a detailed, group-by-group analysis of the handwriting characteristics to support its conclusion. After deducting the 211 invalid ballots from Sarcon’s total, Jalandoni won with a majority of 118 votes. The decision of the lower court was affirmed with this modification.