Case Digest: Sarmiento v Comelec

ISSUE:  Whether or not the Commission on Elections en banc may hear and decide pre-proclamation cases classified as special cases. 

FACTS:  Petitioners impugned the challenged resolutions of the Commission on Elections in pre-proclamation cases classified as special cases. 

DECISION:  No 

RATIO DECIDENDI:  Article IX-C, Section 3 of the Constitution expressly provides that election cases include pre-proclamation controversies, and all such cases must first be heard and decided by a division of the commission. The commission, sitting en banc, does not have the authority to hear and decide the same at the first instance.