PET orders Comelec to comment on Marcos bid for annulment of 2016 poll results in 3 Mindanao provinces

The Supreme Court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), has ordered the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to weigh in on former senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.'s bid for the annulment of 2016 election results in three provinces in Mindanao.

In the newest development in Marcos' election protest case against Vice President Leni Robredo, the PET gave the Comelec 20 days to file its comment on issues related Marcos' third cause of action — the annulment of elections in Lano del Sur, Basilan, Maguindanao due to alleged terrorism, intimidation, voter harassment, and pre-shading of ballots.

The PET also ordered the Comelec, as well as the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), to comment on whether the tribunal has the power to declare the annulment of elections without special elections; a failure of elections, and order the conduct of special elections.

The PET likewise asked the Comelec and the OSG whether the tribunal's declaration of failure of elections, and an order for special elections, will violate the Comelec's mandate under the Constitution.

In addition, the PET ordered the Comelec to report to the justices on whether petitions for failure of elections were filed in Lanao del Sur, Basilan, and Maguindanao; their resolution; whether special elections were held in areas with failure of elections, and the results of these special polls.

The PET likewise directed that the Comelec and the OSG be furnished copies of its Oct. 15, 2019 resolution and of the separate memoranda submitted by the Marcos and Robredo camps on the said resolution.

In that resolution, the PET ordered the release of the report on the revision and re-appreciation of ballots from three pilot provinces that Marcos alleged had fraudulent elections and ordered the parties to comment.

According to the report, Robredo's lead over the former senator widened by more than 15,000 votes after the manual recount of votes from Camarines Sur, Iloilo, and Negros Oriental.

Under Rule 65 of the 2010 PET Rules, the tribunal may dismiss an election protest if it is convinced that the protestant or counter-protestant will "most probably fail to make out his case" on the basis of the pilot recount.

Instead of dismissing the case then, the PET ordered Marcos and Robredo to submit their position on issues regarding Marcos' third cause of action in the interest of "due process."

Of the 13 justices who voted, only Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, who is now retired, and Associate Justice Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa opined that Marcos' election protest should already have been dismissed because he had failed to show a "substantial recovery" of votes after the recount in his pilot provinces of Camarines Sur, Iloilo, and Negros Oriental. — RSJ/AOL, GMA News