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Nonetheless, private respondent's belief that he no longer had a pending case before the COMELEC because he deemed it abandoned upon filing of his protest is not a valid reason for non-disclosure of the pendency of said pre-proclamation case. Note that the COMELEC dismissed private respondent's pre-proclamation case only on July 3, 1998. Before the dismissal, said case was legally still pending resolution. Similarly, the fact that private respondent's protest was not based on the same cause of action as his pre-proclamation case is not a valid excuse for not complying with the required disclosure in the certification against forum shopping. The requirement to file a certificate of non-forum shopping is mandatory. Failure to comply with this requirement cannot be excused by the fact that a party is not guilty of forum shopping. The rule applies to any complaint, petition, application or other initiatory pleading, regardless of whether the party filing it has actually committed forum shopping. Every party filing any initiatory pleading is required to swear under oath that he has not and will not commit forum shopping. Otherwise we would have an absurd situation, as in this case, where the parties themselves would be the judge of whether their actions constitute a violation of the rule, and compliance therewith would depend on their belief that they might or might not have violated the requirement. Such interpretation of the requirement would defeat the very purpose of the rule.18 [Melo vs. Court of Appeals, GR-123686, November 16, 1999, p. 7.]
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CCHOPE ELECTION
2001 
