Facts
Weeks before the May 2022 National and Local Elections, petitioners National Press Club of the Philippines, Automated Election System Watch, and Guardians Brotherhood, Inc. sued COMELEC for mandamus to compel nationwide digital signatures and to disclose and allow access to the printing of official ballots, the configuration and testing of SD cards and vote counting machines, COMELEC's technical hubs, and the network transmitting election results. COMELEC had limited digital signatures to highly urbanized cities and initially barred observers from ballot printing and SD card configuration, though it later livestreamed the printing and opened its warehouse to the public. It opposed the petition mainly because the 2022 elections had already concluded.
Issue
Notwithstanding the conclusion of the 2022 elections, could mandamus compel COMELEC to implement digital signatures and to disclose or allow access to ballot-printing, SD card/VCM, and election-transmission activities?
Ruling
The Court dismissed the petition as moot since the 2022 NLE had already concluded, but resolved the merits anyway because the issues involved paramount public interest, required controlling principles, and were capable of repetition yet evading review. Mandamus did not lie to compel nationwide digital signatures: Section 22 of the AES Law, as amended, requires digital signatures only on electronically transmitted returns, and the VCM-generated signatures already satisfy this without every BEI teacher signing individually, a matter of COMELEC discretion, since "The job of the Court is to say what the law is, not to dictate how another branch, agency, or instrumentality of government should do its job." Witnessing the ballot printing was ministerial under Section 187 of the Omnibus Election Code, but witnessing SD card/VCM configuration was not required by Section 14 of R.A. No. 8436, as amended; both issues became moot once COMELEC livestreamed the printing and opened its Sta. Rosa warehouse to the public. Applying the two-requisite test for compelling disclosure by mandamus, the Court found the transmission diagram a matter of public concern not shown to be exempt by law, so that "were it not for the mootness of the issue, the COMELEC may be compelled via a writ of mandamus to disclose the complete transmission diagram and data/communications network architecture of the VCMs." Physical access to COMELEC's technical hubs and data centers, however, could not be compelled, since Section 35(c) of R.A. No. 8436, as amended, penalizes unauthorized access to such facilities. The Petition was DISMISSED for being moot and academic.