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Bongbong asks PET to dismiss Robredo’s counter-protest for failure to pay recount fee


Former Senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. on Thursday asked the Supreme Court (SC), sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), to dismiss the counter-protest of Vice President Leni Robredo for failure to pay the protest fee on time.

Robredo has yet to pay the P8 million out of the P15.44 million required of her by the tribunal as her lawyers filed a manifestation before the PET on April 12.

The Vice President asked the PET to make a clarification on the fees that Marcos must settle and hold in abeyance the payment required of her for the 8,042 counter-protested clustered precincts.

Marcos, on the other hand, beat the April 17 deadline to post cash deposit of P36.02 million as first installment which would be used for the retrieval of contested ballot boxes and election documents from contested precincts nationwide.

In arguing for the dismissal of Robredo's counter-protest, Marcos cited Rule 34 of the 2010 Rules of the Presidential Electoral Tribunal which empowers the body "to dismiss the protest or counter-protest or take such action as it may deem equitable under the circumstances."

'Not a novel issue'

Dismissing an election protest for failure to pay the necessary fees within the prescribed time limit was not a novel issue, Marcos said,  citing two decisions in poll cases.

These cases are Perla Garcia vs. House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal and Rep.  Harry Angping and Bienvenido William Lloren vs. Commission on Elections and Rogelio Pua Jr.

"Guided by the foregoing, the dismissal of the counter-protest in this case is therefore warranted given the failure on the part of the protestee/counter-protestant Robredo to pay the required cash deposit within prescribed time limit of this Honorable Tribunal," the motion stated.

The former senator also slammed the Vice President's move to file a manifestation as a dilatory tactic.

"Protestant Marcos finds it quite ironic that Robredo would ask for the deferment of the payment of her cash deposit even though she had already expressed her conformity and willingness to pay the same in her manifestation with urgent ex-parte omnibus motion," the motion read.

"There being no issue as to the cash deposit required to be paid by the  protestee/counter-protestant, there is no clearly no basis for Robredo to hold in abeyance the payment of the cash deposit for her counter-protest," it added.

Marcos said it was "inappropriate" for Robredo to question the tribunal's "wisdom and discretion" with respect to the computation of the cash deposit required of him, noting only the PET has "control and exclusive supervision" of all matters pertaining to election protest, including the computation of the protest fee.

Reached for comment, the lead counsel of Robredo said they will comply with the high court's order should it orders them to do so once their petition is decided upon.

"We will wait for the PET to resolve the matter,” lawyer Romulo Macalintal said in a statement. "If the PET decides we should pay now, we will make the necessary payment."
 

Prelim conference

Meanwhile, Bongbong also reiterated his plea to set the case for preliminary conference.

The preliminary conference will set in motion the issues to be resolved, the list of witnesses and the evidence to be presented as well as the schedule of hearings and the revision of the ballots, in Marcos' protest.

Both camps are required to pay in two tranches, the first of which should have been received by April 14, which falls on a national holiday in observance of Good Friday.

Because of this, the payment for the first installment was processed the next working day, which is on April 17.

Marcos was ordered to raise P36,023,000 for the first installment and P30,000,000 for the second installment.

Robredo, meanwhile, is required to pay P8,000,000 for the first installment, and P7,439,000 for the second installment.

The deadline for the payment of the second installment is July 14. 

Marcos is contesting the poll results in 39,221 clustered precincts, which the Commission on Elections said are composed of 132,446 precincts, while Robredo is questioning the results in 8,042 clustered precincts which are composed of 31,278 precincts.

Marcos lost to Robredo by just 263,473 votes in the May 2016 election the former senator claimed was marred by fraud. — RSJ, GMA News

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