PET requires Robredo to comment on Bongbong Marcos’ appeal

The Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) has ordered Vice President Leni Robredo to comment on former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s appeal to overturn the unanimous decision junking his 2016 election protest.

Robredo was given 10 days from receipt of notice to file her response, said Supreme Court spokesperson Brian Keith Hosaka.

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.

Robredo’s legal counsel Romulo Macalintal said they will file their comment on Friday.

Last month, Macalintal 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 is composed of all SC justices.

In a decision dated February 16, the PET said Marcos “failed to make out his case” as Robredo would still maintain a lead of 15,130 votes even if the tribunal went ahead with the third cause of action.

Marcos’ camp said in February that he would run in the 2022 national elections, but did not say for which position. — with Llanesca T. Panti/RSJ, GMA News