Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 14) — Vice President Leni Robredo’s camp has filed a manifestation urging the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) to uphold its rules amid the poll protest against her.
This amid speculations saying the Supreme Court (SC), sitting as the PET, has voted to proceed with the protest filed by Former Senator Bongbong Marcos. Retiring Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin had earlier denied this.
The manifestation reminded the PET that it cannot move forward with the protest should Marcos fail to substantially recover Robredo’s lead on votes from the three pilot provinces he cited in his motion for a recount.
“Without any evidence, no matter how loud the cry of cheating may be, this Election Protest must be dismissed,” Robredo’s motion said.
The SC announced in September that it has already concluded the recount and revision of all 5,415 election precincts in the three test provinces of Camarines Sur, Negros Oriental and Iloilo. Robredo’s legal counsel also filed a motion requesting to see the results of the recount last week but the SC has yet to respond.
Bersamin earlier said the SC would have the recount results by this week. He assured the results were not fixed.
Three more provinces
In 2018, Marcos filed another motion for a technical examination of voter records in three more provinces — Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao and Basilan — for a separate investigation.
Marcos wanted a comparison and/or examination of the data of 82,316 registered voters in 508 precincts from these areas. He alleged that over 43,823 signatures/thumbmarks were not identical.
Robredo’s manifestation asked the PET to uphold its rules, reminding them that the rules state that results from the initial three pilot provinces should be re-examined first.
“Rule 65 allows the Tribual to conduct a revision of ballots and reception of evidence on the designated pilot provinces first,” it said.
The manifestation also adds that the documents in this motion were “misleading.” Records showed there were 2,756 “clustered/merged precincts” and 1,354,920 registered voters in those provinces. This means the over 43,000 non-identical signatures and thumb marks is not representative of the legitimate one million voters, it said.
Robredo was proclaimed vice president three years ago with a lead of 263,473 votes against Marcos during the May 2016 elections. The recount began in April 2018, two years after Marcos filed his poll protest.
