THE Supreme Court sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal has ordered Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni’ Robredo to answer the appeal of 2016 defeated vice presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. seeking to reverse the court’s unanimous decision junking his election protest for lack of merit.
SC spokesman Brian Keith Hosaka told reporters yesterday that the order was issued by the SC en banc during its session last June 15.
“I confirm that the Presidential Electoral Tribunal in its resolution of June 15, 2021 in PET Case No, 005 has required respondent VP Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo to file her comment to the motion for reconsideration dated May 6, 2021 filed by protestee Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos, within a period of 10 days from receipt of notice,” Hosaka told reporters in a text message.
In his appeal, Marcos insisted that SC erred in dismissing his third cause of action in his election protest because this is separate from his first and second causes of action. The third cause of action called for the annulment of the election results in the Mindanao provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur and Basilan.
Marcos cited the resolution of the House Electoral Tribunal in 2015 in the election protest filed by Harlin Abayon against Samar Rep. Raul Daza, when it said that the cause of action to annul the election results in the clustered precincts enumerated in the election protest is “distinct, separate and independent” from the other cause of action.
With these, Marcos asked the PET not only to reconsider its February decision but to also constitute a special committee to conduct hearings, receive evidence and assess the evidence for the cause of action of the annulment of election results in the said Mindanao provinces.
He also asked the PET to direct the Commission on Elections to conduct the technical examination of the voter’s signatures appearing on the election day computerized voter’s list as against the voter’s signatures appearing on the voter’s registration records in the said provinces.
In its decision, the PET declined to fully investigate claims of fraud and terrorism in Lanao del Sur, Basilan and Maguindanao, citing Rule 65’s limit of pilot provinces to the three provinces of Camarines Sur, Iloilo and Negros Oriental where Marcos claimed there was fraud and other irregularities that attended the conduct of the 2016 elections.
After the revision and recount of ballots in the said pilot provinces, the PET said Robredo padded her lead by more than 15,000 more votes over Marcos.
The PET also said Marcos cannot pick a second set of provinces to prove his contention that he was cheated of victory, adding that he failed to show prima facie proof for her claims that violence, terrorism, harassment and other irregularities marred the conduct of elections in Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur and Basilan to warrant the annulment of election results.
The Marcos’ camp earlier argued that if the elections in the said Mindanao provinces were annulled and all votes cast there voided, Robredo’s initial national margin of 263,473 votes would have been wiped out.
But Associate Justice Marvic Leonen in his ponencia disagreed, saying that Robredo would still have won by a margin of more than 15,000 votes.
