OSG to PET: Uphold rejection of Robredo’s bid for 25-percent threshold

Independent of his client's position, Solicitor General Jose Calida, the government's chief lawyer, has asked the Supreme Court (SC), sitting  as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, to uphold its rejection of Vice President Leni Robredo's bid for a 25-percent standard in determining which votes are valid in the ongoing vice presidential votes recount.

The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) represents the Commission on Elections (Comelec) as Robredo appeals her failure to get the PET  to apply the 25-percent threshold in the recount.

The PET currently applies a 50-percent threshold.

In her motion for reconsideration, Robredo had cited a 2016 letter from the Comelec to the PET that said while voters were instructed to shade the ovals in the ballots fully, "the shading threshold was set at about 25% of the oval space."

The PET then asked the Comelec to comment on Robredo's appeal.

But Calida, citing SC decisions as precedents, has assumed a position of his own -- as the "People's Tribune" -- "notwithstanding the stance of the Comelec," in asking the PET to affirm its April 10 resolution declaring it has "no basis to impose a 25% threshold in determining whether a vote is valid."

The Comelec has no jurisdiction over vice-presidential election contests, Calida and his office claimed in a recent court filing.

Only the PET, and not the Comelec, can prescribe the rules in the ongoing manual vote recount between Robredo and her defeated opponent, former senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., the OSG said in a manifestation and motion in lieu of a comment dated July 4.

While the Comelec can make the rules on the procedure of election contests, this power is limited to those involving members of the Batasang Pambansa and elective regional, provincial, and city officials, it said, citing the Omnibus Election Code.

"Clearly, in election contests relating to the Vice-Presidential position, such as the present case, the Comelec has no jurisdiction to impose its own rules."

The OSG said the 50-percent threshold currently applied by the PET in its supervision of the Robredo-Marcos vote recount is "reasonable," since it is purportedly based on the "inability of the human eye to distinguish the 25-percent threshold."

It added that the letter Robredo had cited in her favor, which Marcos had called "misleading," referred to an optical scan counting system, and not to a manual counting.

At the time, Robredo "cannot insist" on using the 25-percent threshold in the recount, Calida and other lawyers for the government said.

Marcos earlier argued the letter Robredo presented pertained to guidelines for the Random Manual Audit and did not mention if the Comelec adopted them for poll protests.

Calida in his own motion agreed, saying: "Being a different process from an audit, the rules of procedure of the Random Manual Audit do not apply to the PET election contest."

No disenfranchisement, claims Calida

The OSG also said Robredo's fear that voters will be disenfranchised given the continued application of the 50-percent threshold is "bereft of merit."

Voters had been consistently reminded voters to shade the oval spaces in the ballots fully, the motion said. Hence, "they knew that for their votes to be counted they should fully shade the oval space."

"Therefore, the supposed disenfranchisement that would result in the application of the 50 percent threshold has no basis," it said.

Marcos himself had shot down Robredo's concern of the 50-percent threshold influencing the results of the 2016 elections "wrong, premature and speculative."

To end his pleading, Calida asked the PET for 10 more days "to submit its own comment" on Robredo's appeal.

Robredo's lawyers have recently taken issue with the OSG's alleged delaying of filing its comment on their motion for reconsideration by submitting multiple motions to extend the comment filing deadline.

In the July 4 manifestation, Calida said those motions were not intended for delay "but to study whether the Solicitor General should file a comment on behalf of the Comelec, or act as the People's Tribune." — RSJ, GMA News