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SUSPENSION OF COMELEC RULES OF PROCEDURES We quote some portions of the questioned resolution of the COMELEC, thus: "However, this
Commission cannot countenance an injustice that will be done to petitioner
if his allegation of error if proven would result into a loser becoming a
winner. The Commission in order to fulfill its mandate in faithfully
determining the will of the electorate may brush aside its rules if it
stands in the way of finding the truth. The Supreme Court recognized the
Commission’s paramount role when it pronounced that, ‘While election
controversies should be speedily settled, so as not to frustrate the
expression of the people’s will, this laudable objective does not free
the Commission from compliance with established principles of fairness and
justice and the adjudication of cases not on technicality but on their
substantive merits’ (Rodriguez versus
Comelec, 119 SCRA 465). If the rules are
obstacles in the way of doing justice, then it can be said that it is a
mere technicality that should not stand in the way of determining as to
who between the contending parties have the mandate of the
electorate."18 [Orig. Record, p. 289; Rollo, p. 42.]
xxx "xxx (T)he
Commission in order to do justice and truly determine the rightful winner
in the elections may suspend its rules provided the right of the parties
are equally protected and act thereon pro hac vice." xxx19
[Ibid., p. 290; Ibid., p. 43.] From the above, we could glean why there was a need to suspend the 1993 COMELEC Rules of Procedure. Without its suspension, the Supplemental Petition would have been dismissed. The allegation that it was Republic Act 7166 that was suspended and not the 1993 COMELEC Rules of Procedure is not correct. Both R.A. 7166 and the COMELEC Rules of Procedure cover the same subject on which the suspension was made, to wit: Sections 17 and 20 of R.A. 7166 (now found under Section 243 of the Omnibus Election Code of the Philippines) and Sections 2 and 9, Rule 27 of the 1993 COMELEC Rules of Procedure.
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CCHOPE ELECTION
2001 
