SC junks Tolentino plea vs. proclamation of Gatchalian, Recto, De Lima

The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed defeated senatorial candidate Francisco Tolentino's plea to stop the proclamation of Valenzuela Rep. Sherwin Gatchalian, Sen. Ralph Recto, and former Justice Sec. Leila de Lima as newly-elected senators during the May 9 elections.

Gatchalian, Recto and De Lima ranked 10th, 11th and 12th respectively in the senatorial race.

The high court, in an en banc session after emerging from a decision writing break, junked Tolentino's petition for certiorari "for being moot and academic," because the three respondents had already been proclaimed by the Commission on Elections last May 19.

Tolentino, an independent candidate and former chair of the Metro Manila Development Authority, ranked 13th in the senatorial elections.

He said the 10th, 11th and 12th placer in the senatorial race  should not yet be proclaimed because an alleged "data manipulation" has compromised the results of the results of the May 9 elections.

Tolentino had asked the SC to direct the Comelec to open the automated election system to forensic audit and investigation to determine the nature, extent, effect, and consequences of the unauthorized manipulation of the system made by Marlon Garcia of Smartamtic, which is the systems provider for the recently concluded polls.

"In failing to prevent this so-called unauthorized access to the AES, in effect, the Comelec has reneged on its obligation to oversee its obligation to oversee the conduct of clean, honest, and credible elections," said Tolentino's lawyer, Jose Ventura Aspiras.

Aspiras said the manipulation led to "absurd and abnormal results."

He noted that the margin of the votes for candidates three to 12 was only "in the vicinity of hundred of thousands of votes." — RSJ, GMA News