Preliminary conference on Roxas poll protest set on Sept. 30

The Supreme Court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), will hold on September 30 its first preliminary conference on the election protest filed by former Senator Manuel Roxas II against Vice President Jejomar Binay. Retired Supreme Court justice Bernardo Pardo, who headed the Commission on Elections prior to his appointment to the Court in 1998, will be the hearing commissioner, said Supreme Court administrator Jose Midas Marquez at a press briefing on Wednesday. “A preliminary conference for the protest of Senator Mar Roxas will be held on September 30 at the en banc conference room. Also, the tribunal has appointed [Pardo] to become the hearing commissioner," said Marquez. According to the 2010 Rules of the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, a preliminary conference is held after the last pleadings from the parties to the case have been submitted. Binay won by about 700,000 votes over Roxas in the May 10 automated elections, but the former senator is questioning the results of the national canvassing. PET resolves election protests in the presidential and vice presidential races. A preliminary conference is tasked to consider the following:

• The possibility of obtaining stipulations or admissions of facts and documents to avoid unnecessary proof;
• The simplification of the issues;
• The limitation of the number of witnesses;
• The most expeditious manner for the retrieval of ballot boxes containing the ballots, election returns, certificates of canvass and other election documents involved in the election protest; and
• Such other matters as may aid in the prompt disposition of the election protest or petition for quo warranto

Roxas vs Binay Last July, Roxas asked the PET to void Binay’s victory in the May 10, 2010 nationwide automated elections, citing irregularities in the canvassing of the votes. Roxas asked the tribunal to account for three million null votes and other votes that were not counted during the national canvassing. He also asked for a thorough review of the automated elections system in light of the technical glitches encountered before, during, and after the elections. Roxas said there were 1,147 clustered precincts where he received 10 votes or less, 688 (or 60 percent) of which were from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). In the 688 ARMM clustered precincts, 328 were from Lanao del Sur, 251 from Maguindanao. There were likewise 305 clustered precincts where he received less than 1 percent votes of the total precinct turnout, and 204 clustered precincts where he received one or zero vote. Binay later countered Roxas' protest and said the former senator has no legal basis to seek the nullification of his (Binay's) proclamation as vice president. Binay also said it was he, not Roxas, who was cheated in the May 2010 polls. - Sophia Regina Dedace/KBK/RSJ, GMANews.TV