PET orders release of initial recount report in Marcos protest vs. Robredo

The Supreme Court (SC), sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), has ordered the release of the official report on the initial vote recount involved in former senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos, Jr.'s election protest against Vice President Leni Robredo.

The justices on Tuesday directed the release of the report on the recount of contested ballots from Camarines Sur, Iloilo, and Negros Oriental, Marcos' chosen pilot provinces, to Marcos and Robredo, said SC spokesman Brian Hosaka.

The PET also required the parties to comment on the report and to submit their memoranda on the "various issues relating to the jurisdiction and other matters relating to the third cause of action" within 20 days from receipt of notice.

Marcos' supposed third cause of action is the annulment of 2016 election results for vice president in Lanao del Sur, Basilan, and Maguindanao due to alleged terrorism, violence, force, threats, intimidation, pre-shading of ballots, and vote substitution.

Hosaka said Associate Justices Antonio Carpio and Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa dissented, while Associate Justice Jose Reyes, Jr. was not present in the en banc session.

Robredo through her lawyers last week filed a motion asking that the parties be furnished a copy of the report "if only to put to rest the speculations and in the greater interest of transparency," but Hosaka said he could not say if the new resolution was an action on Robredo's motion.

Marcos is contesting Robredo's victory in the 2016 elections, which he alleged was a product of electoral fraud.

He chose the three pilot provinces under Rule 65 of the 2010 PET Rules, which allows a protestant or counter-protestant to indicate provinces that "best exemplify the frauds or irregularities" alleged in the petition and subject them to an examination of ballots.

The same rule allows the tribunal to dismiss the case if the justices are convinced that the protestant or counter-protestant “will most probably fail to make out his case.”

'No decision yet'

Hosaka confirmed the status quo remains because the PET has yet to release its decision on the protest itself.

"As for the decision, there's none yet," Hosaka said.

This is at least the third deferment of the vote since Caguioa, the justice in charge of the case, submitted a report on the recount in the pilot provinces last month.

But Hosaka said the report to be released to the parties is not Caguioa's report, but one "on the results of the recount and revision."

"Since I have not seen the Caguioa report, then I cannot say if it is the same," he told reporters.

Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin will retire this Friday, Carpio on October 26.

The justices will go on a decision-writing period starting October 21 and will only resume deliberations on November 4. — MDM, GMA News