Marcos appeals PET decision junking poll protest vs. Robredo

Former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has asked the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) to reverse its decision junking his election protest against Vice President Leni Robredo.

Marcos appealed the decision on Monday even if the PET — which is composed of all justices of the Supreme Court — has already voted unanimously to uphold Robredo’s victory in the 2016 election due to the former senator’s failure to make a substantial recovery of votes and present proof of irregularities.

In his motion for reconsideration, the former senator insisted his third cause of action — the annulment of 2016 election results for vice president in Lanao del Sur, Basilan, and Maguindanao — could proceed independently from the manual recount and judicial revision.

Marcos urged the PET to proceed with the presentation of evidence before a special committee.

The former lawmaker also asked the tribunal to order the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to conduct the technical examination of the voters’ signatures appearing on the Election Day Computerized Voters’ List as against the signatures appearing on the Voters Registration Records in the protested clustered precincts.

According to Marcos, the tribunal did not give him an opportunity to present his evidence for the annulment of poll results in the three provinces on the grounds of terrorism, violence, intimidation, substitution of voters, and pre-shading of ballots allegedly in favor of Robredo.

But the tribunal said in its February 16 ruling that it had granted the parties “every opportunity to make and defend their arguments.”

Robredo’s lead counsel Romulo Macalintal, meanwhile, said “Marcos would be the luckiest man in the world if he could reverse the unanimous decision by merely repeating the same issues and arguments already decided by the entire Presidential Electoral Tribunal.”

The PET earlier said that Robredo would still maintain a lead of 15,130 votes “even if we proceed with the third cause of action.”

The tribunal arrived at this conclusion by combining the results of the manual recount in the three pilot provinces of Camarines Sur, Iloilo, and Negros Oriental and the projected results for the third cause of action.

“Protestant (Marcos) failed to make out his case,” the PET said in its decision.

“To entertain the third cause of action is to risk frustrating the valid exercise of the nation’s democratic will and subject it to the endless whims of a defeated candidate,” the tribunal said. —KBK, GMA News