Marcos spox seeks clarification; Robredo camp says it’s ‘game over’

The camp of former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. on Wednesday said they want a clarification whether the Supreme Court (SC), sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), dismissed his electoral protest or only a portion of it.

In an interview with ANC, Marcos’ spokesperson Vic Rodriguez said they are waiting for the official copy of the decision even as the tribunal had already made a pronouncement that the ruling was unanimous in favor of junking the “entire electoral protest" for lack of merit.

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“We want to find out through that hard copy of the decision whether the term ‘election protest’ has been used strictly to refer specifically to manual recount or in its generic, general or loose term to include even our third cause of action because if they did include our third cause of action, more questions will arise,” Rodriguez said.

“Why? Ni hindi nila nahipo, nasilayan, naamoy, napag-aralan yung aming third cause of action. That is where our interest lies. Paano ninyo dinesisyunan yung aming third cause of action? Iyon ang gusto naming malaman.”

One part of Marcos’ protest was a recount, revision and re-appreciation of ballots from three provinces he chose: Camarines Sur, Iloilo, and Negros Oriental. After the recount, the PET found that Robredo’s lead over Marcos widened by some 15,000 votes.

Under PET rules, the tribunal may dismiss an election protest if it finds that the protestant will “most probably fail to make out his case” based on an examination of ballots from the pilot provinces.

Instead of dismissing the case then, the PET, citing due process, ordered Marcos and Robredo to submit their position on issues regarding Marcos’ bid for the annulment of 2016 election results for vice president in Lanao del Sur, Basilan, and Maguindanao due to alleged terrorism, harassment of voters and other forms of electoral fraud.

“It has been established during the numerous hearings and decision and deliberation of the court [that] the third cause of action is separate, distinct and can proceed independently from the manual recount and judicial revision,” Rodriguez said.

He earlier said Marcos would seek an elective post in the 2022 elections, but did not say on what position. 

‘Hard to overturn’

Marcos’ camp has yet to decide whether to appeal the ruling, which according to Robredo’s legal counsel Romulo Macalintal would be “very hard” to overturn.

“With due respect, para sa akin, game over na ito kasi unanimous iyan eh. Very, very hard to overturn a 15-member en banc voting unanimously to dismiss the case,” Macalintal told CNN-Philippines.

“I don’t know kung sino pang justice ang magre-review ng entire case kasi it would need another justice to review the entire case, voluminous documents in order to come up with a decision that would overturn the decision.”

Robredo on Tuesday urged the public to move forward following the tribunal’s decision affirming her victory. — RSJ, GMA News