Palace respects PET ruling on ballot shading threshold

Malacañang said Wednesday it respects the decision of the Presidential Electoral Tribunal upholding the 25-percent ballot shading threshold in the recount of votes in the 2016 vice presidential election involving incumbent Leni Robredo and former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.

The PET, which is composed of all justices of the Supreme Court, arrived at the decision after Robredo and the Commission on Elections insisted that the shading threshold for the 2016 elections was set at 25 percent of the oval space in the ballot.

“The President is not a party to the election protest and that’s the decision of the PET so be it,” presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in an interview on CNN Philippines.

Asked if Malacañang respects the ruling, Roque said: “Of course. We will implement the decision of the PET that is why we let the PET do its job.”

Marcos lost to Robredo by 263,473 votes in the May 2016 election which the former senator claimed was marred by fraud.

Malacañang had said President Rodrigo Duterte might resign if Marcos wins his electoral protest against Robredo, whom the chief executive deemed incompetent to take on the country’s top job.

Duterte is a political ally of the Marcoses, whose patriarch, the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos, was laid to rest at the Libingan ng mga Bayani on November 18, 2016 following support from the President himself and later, the SC. — Virgil Lopez/RSJ, GMA News