G.R. No. L-78461, G.R. No. 79146, G.R. No. 79212 August 12, 1987
AUGUSTO S. SANCHEZ, petitioner, vs. COMMISSION ON ELECTIONS, respondent. JUAN PONCE ENRILE, petitioner, vs. COMMISSION ON ELECTIONS AND SANTANINA RASUL, respondents. JUAN PONCE ENRILE, petitioner, vs. COMMISSION ON ELECTIONS AND AUGUSTO S. SANCHEZ, respondents.

FACTS

Petitioner Augusto S. Sanchez, a senatorial candidate in the May 11, 1987 elections, filed a petition for a recount with the Commission on Elections (Comelec). He alleged that votes intended for him were declared stray because of the sameness of his surname with that of a disqualified candidate, Gil Sanchez, whose name remained on the official ballots. The Comelec initially dismissed his petition on July 16, 1987. Meanwhile, with votes still uncanvassed, the Comelec proclaimed Santanina Rasul as the 23rd senator-elect on July 25, 1987, despite a narrow lead of 1,910 votes over Juan Ponce Enrile and a larger lead of Enrile over Sanchez. The Comelec justified this by asserting it was improbable for Enrile to overcome Rasul’s lead from the remaining Muslim-dominated precincts.
Subsequently, on July 30, 1987, the Comelec reversed itself and granted Sanchez’s petition for a recount. This prompted Enrile to file petitions before the Supreme Court. In G.R. No. 79146, Enrile sought to annul Rasul’s proclamation and compel the completion of the canvass. In G.R. No. 79212, he sought to annul the Comelec’s recount order and compel his own proclamation, arguing the recount was not a proper pre-proclamation remedy and that his lead over Sanchez was insurmountable.

ISSUE

The core issue is whether the Comelec acted with grave abuse of discretion in: (1) proclaiming Rasul as the 23rd senator-elect before the complete canvass of votes, and (2) granting Sanchez’s petition for a recount of ballots.

RULING

The Supreme Court ruled that the Comelec committed grave abuse of discretion in both actions. First, the premature proclamation of Rasul was invalid. The canvass of votes is a mandatory and ministerial duty that must be completed to ascertain the true results. The Comelec’s assumption that the remaining votes from Muslim areas would favor Rasul was speculative and violated the constitutional mandate to base proclamation on the full canvass. Proclamation cannot be based on probabilities but on the actual count.
Second, the Comelec gravely abused its discretion in ordering a recount for Sanchez. A petition for recount or re-appreciation of ballots, which questions the intrinsic validity of the ballots themselves, is not a proper subject of a pre-proclamation controversy. Pre-proclamation cases are limited to issues concerning the election returns’ completeness or authenticity—their extrinsic validity. Sanchez’s claim of miscredited votes due to a similar surname pertains to the ballots’ contents, a matter properly adjudicated in an election protest filed with the Senate Electoral Tribunal, the sole judge of all contests relating to senators’ election. The Comelec, therefore, exceeded its jurisdiction in ordering the recount. The Court directed the completion of the canvass and remanded the determination of the 23rd and 24th winning senators to the proper electoral tribunal.