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Bongbong: Robredo’s basis in asking for 25-percent threshold ‘misleading’


Vice President Leni Robredo's legal basis in asking the Supreme Court (SC) to apply a 25-percent threshold in determining the validity of votes is "misleading," her defeated rival, former senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., said Monday.

In an 11-page comment/opposition, Marcos through his lawyers asked the SC, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), to stand by its April 10 resolution denying Robredo's motion and to junk her appeal praying for the recognition of votes shaded by at least 25 percent in the manual recount of vice presidential votes.

Robredo has filed a motion for reconsideration, citing a 2016 resolution from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) saying that the automated election system considered as votes marks that covered at least 25 percent of the ballot ovals.

But in his Monday filing, Marcos argued there was "no categorical declaration" in Comelec Resolution No. 16-0600 that the 25-percent shading threshold was adopted by the poll body en banc "during the judicial recount and revision of ballots in election protest."

Citing Comelec Executive Director Jose Tolentino Jr., he said the Project Management Office and the Electoral Contests Adjudication Department of the commission have not provided guidelines on manual counting.

Guidelines used by the Random Manual Audit Committee, he said, were intended "exclusively" for used by random manual audit teams in random manual audit activities.

The memorandum by Comelec Commissioner Luie Guia to then-SC clerk of court Felipa Anama was worded in response to the latter's request with a copy of Smartmatic guidelines "used in the Random Manual Audit" and had "no mention" if the said guidelines were adopted by the Comelec for recounts in poll protests,  Marcos added.

He further argued that using a 25-percent threshold in a manual recount was "absurd," as the Random Manual Audit Report itself "admitted" its "impossibility" when human eyes, not machines, are determining the validity of votes.

"Based on the foregoing, protestee Robredo is obviously deceiving this Honorable Tribunal by claiming in her Motions that there was a Comelec Resolution mandating the applicability of the 25-percent shading threshold in the appreciation and segregation of votes during the judicial recount and revision of ballots in an election protest," he said in his comment.

He also said it was "wrong, premature and speculative" for Robredo to claim that the 50-percent threshold would influence the results of the manual recount in his three pilot provinces.

Marcos likewise accused Robredo of laches, or unreasonably delaying the assertion of a right, since she only asked for the application of the 25-percent standard after the manual recount started.

Apart from the dismissal of Robredo's appeal, Marcos also asked for the confirmation of the 50-percent threshold and for the discontinuation and nullification of the instructions on segregation of ballots with threshold issues for "lack of basis and for unduly delaying the recount and revision proceedings."

Sought for comment, Robredo's lead lawyer, Romulo Macalintal, said Marcos' insisted 50-percent threshold "will mean disenfranchisement of millions of voters in the 2016 polls, including those who voted for him."

He maintained his team's anchoring on the Comelec resolution adopting Guia's recommendation as basis of the 25-percent threshold.

"The position of Mr. Marcos is a clear indication that he intends to take the protest towards his grand design, and at all cost, even to the extent of changing the rules of the game and putting to naught the voice of the innocent voters whose constitutional right of suffrage would be affected," Macalintal said in a statement.

Marcos is challenging Robredo's victory in the 2016 polls through an election protest, a part of which is a manual vote recount in three pilot provinces -- Camarines Sur, Negros Oriental, and Iloilo -- that kicked off last month. — RSJ, GMA News

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