PRESBITERO V. COMELEC (ELECTION)

Stressed repeatedly in our prior decisions is that a FAILURE OF ELECTION may be declared only in the three instances stated in Section 6 of the Omnibus Election Code:

1. the election has not been held;
2. the election has been suspended before the hour fixed by law; and
3. the preparation and the transmission of the election returns have given rise to the consequent failure to elect, meaning nobody emerged as the winner.

Furthermore, the reason for such failure of election should be force majeure, violence, terrorism, fraud, or other analogous causes. Finally, before the COMELEC can grant a verified petition seeking to declare a failure of election, the concurrence of 2 conditions must be established, namely:

• no voting has taken place in the precincts concerned on the date fixed by law or
• even if there was voting, the election nevertheless resulted in a failure to elect; and the votes cast would affect the result of the election.

In the instant case, it is admitted by the petitioners that elections were held in the subject locality. Also, the private respondents and four of the petitioners won in the elections and were proclaimed as the duly elected municipal officials. There is nothing in the records from which the Court can make even a slim deduction that there has been a failure to elect in Valladolid, Negros Occidental.

Absent any proof that the voting did not take place, the alleged disenfranchisement of the 946 individuals and 2000 more supporters of the petitioners cannot even be considered as a basis for the declaration of a failure of election. Had petitioners been aggrieved by the allegedly illegal composition and proceedings of the MBOC, then they should have filed the appropriate pre-proclamation case contesting such composition or proceedings of the board, rather than erroneously raising the same as grounds for the declaration of failure of election. In sum, petitioners have not adduced any ground which will warrant a declaration of failure of election.

There is failure of election only when the will of the electorate has been muted and cannot be ascertained. If the will of the people is determinable, the same must as far as possible be respected.