MANILA (UPDATED) - Justices of the Supreme Court (SC) have unanimously voted to order the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to enable the printing of vote receipts which is a feature of the vote-counting machines that will be used in the upcoming polls.

Voting 14-0, the high court granted the petition for mandamus of former Senator Richard Gordon.

It ordered the Comelec to print the vote receipts but regulate its release and disposal.

The SC said the poll body must come up with a set of guidelines with respect to the printing of the receipts. It said one of the steps which may be taken by the poll body is to ensure that after voter verification, ''receipts should be deposited in a separate ballot box not taken out of the precincts."

"Democracy and transparency won today," said Gordon in a statement.

"With the Supreme Court deciding unanimously to order the Comelec to enable the VVPAT feature, it is not only a victory for me because the high court decided in favor of my petition but it is a victory for the millions of Filipino voters because this feature will help ensure clean, honest and credible elections."

Gordon said with the issuance of receipts, voters will be assured that their ballots were properly processed by the vote counting machines.

"The decision demonstrated that government agencies, like the Comelec, will never be allowed to run roughshod over peoples' rights and will never get away with flagrant violations of the country's laws," he said.

The Comelec had earlier voted unanimously not to activate this feature, citing time constraints and the possibility of the receipts being used for vote-buying.

In his petition, Gordon lamented that since 2010, when the Comelec first implemented the nationwide automated polls, these safety features have not been implemented. He described the poll body as a "recidivist" in violating RA No. 9369.

Gordon said Comelec's failure to put in place the safeguards has resulted in polls that "have not been credible."

He said the vote receipt or the Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) in particular, must be implemented so that voters are assured that not only are their votes cast but that these are properly counted. He said this is a "critical" and "indispensable" security feature of the automated counting machine.

READ: Comelec won't activate paper printout of votes

The VVPAT is a "voter-verified paper audit trail" that should correspond to the votes cast in the ballots.

Gordon said the vote receipt will not be used in cheating but will instead serve as evidence in the event that vote-buying takes place.