Marcos slams Robredo appeal on PET action on poll protest as dilatory tactic

Former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has asked the Supreme Court (SC), sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), to stick to its ruling last January allowing his poll protest against Vice President Leni Robredo to proceed.

Marcos urged the PET to junk Robredo's appeal, calling it as another dilatory tactic in the case.

"This (motion for reconsideration) should not be tolerated by this Honorable Tribunal, as this would contradict the PET's mandate to achieve a just, expeditious and inexpensive determination and disposition of every contest brought before it,” Marcos said in the comment filed by his lawyers last Friday.

“More than nine months have already gone by and all protestee Robredo has done is to file one dilatory motion after another. If protestee Robredo has nothing to hide, then she should do everything in her power to encourage – rather than hinder – this election protest to move forward,” he added.

Marcos said Robredo cannot keep claiming that she won the elections fair and square and "yet, behind everyone’s back, she keeps finding ways to stop the truth from coming out."

Robredo's lawyer Romulo Macalintal had earlier denied they were engaging in dilatory tactics.

"There are no dilatory tactics. Our actions are based on the rules and remedies allowed under the law," Macalintal told GMA News Online on March 6.

"It is just like several oppositions of Marcos to Robredo's other motions we could not be treated as dilatory but consistent with the rules and the right to due process of both parties," he added.

The PET had junked Robredo's bid to dismiss Marcos' poll protest for issues that should have been allegedly resolved by Congress, sitting as the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC).

The tribunal said it has jurisdiction over the case and the protest was sufficient in form and substance, taking into account the narrations of "ultimate facts" on the alleged irregularities and anomalies in the contested clustered precincts.

In his comment, Marcos called on the PET to direct the immediate collection, retrieval, transport and delivery of all ballot boxes from all 36,465 clustered precincts and set the case for preliminary conference.

Marcos lost to Robredo by just 263,473 votes in the May 2016 election, making it the tightest vice presidential race in recent history. —KG, GMA News