MANILA, Philippines—There is no stopping the Commission on Elections (Comelec) from deliberating and deciding on the Bulacan gubernatorial dispute after the Supreme Court on Tuesday denied with finality the appeal of Bulacan Governor Joselito Mendoza.

In a resolution, the high court said Mendoza failed to raise new issues that would warrant a reversal of its Oct. 15 ruling.

Last Oct. 15, the high court, by a unanimous vote of 11-0, dismissed Mendoza’s petition for certiorari for lack of merit and lifted its July 14, 2009, status quo order against the Comelec in connection with former Bulacan Governor Roberto Pagdanganan’s poll protest.

Mendoza has questioned, among others, the alleged “secret proceedings” sometime last June by the Comelec on Pagdanganan’s poll protest.

Specifically, he claimed he was not informed of the poll body’s orders allowing the continuation of the revision of ballots which are then under the custody of the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET). He said this was a violation of his fundamental right to due process.

But the high court held that there was no grave abuse of discretion on the part of the Comelec.

It stressed that the contested proceedings at the SET were no longer part of the adversarial aspects of the election contest that would require notice of hearing and the participation of the parties.

It added that what took place at the SET were the internal deliberations of the Comelec in the course of appreciating the evidence presented and deciding the provincial election contest on the merits.

These deliberations, the high court said, were no different from its judicial deliberations which are considered confidential and privileged.