The term revision is defined as the act of revising (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). It could also mean to change or to adjust something. In all election protest cases, a revision of ballots is conducted, that is why a revision committee is always formed. When a candidate receives the highest number of votes in an electoral exercise and he or she is proclaimed the winner, the losing party may opt to file an election protest.

Election protests involving municipal and barangay officials must be filed with the courts while those involving regional, provincial, city and appeals from decisions of the courts involving barangay and municipal officials, must be filed with the Commission on Elections. Those involving members of the house of representatives and senators must be filed with their respective electoral tribunals established under the Constitution and finally, those protests involving the position of president and vice president of the Philippines must be filed with the
Presidential electoral tribunal within the prescribed period.

During revision, the committee tasked with the revision of ballots is mainly composed of the coordinator, with a revising staff and representatives from both the protestant and the protestee who shall examine the ballots in the questioned or contested precincts.

Election protests can be availed of as a remedy for aggrieved parties even if the elections are automated. The Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS)/Vote Counting Machine (VCM) will not be used during revision but will only be utilized for authentication purposes and for determining the threshold of shading of the oval that represents the vote for a certain candidate.

In such cases, in all official positions, representatives of both parties (winning and losing) are present when the ballot boxes are opened, so how come, aggrieved persons would always claim that they never lost but were only cheated.

Our topic this Friday on Balitaktakan will dwell on this issue and we could slightly touch on the remedy of quo warranto and annulment of proclamation. See you on May 28, 2021 at 8:30am on RNG Luzon.

***All comments mentioned in this article are made in my personal capacity as a lawyer and are not made as an employee of the Commission on Elections (Comelec).