PET holds preliminary conference on electoral protests of Marcos, Robredo

THE SUPREME Court (SC), sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), holds a preliminary conference today on the electoral protest filed by former Senator Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr,. and counter-electoral protest by Vice-President Maria Leonor G. Robredo.

The case stemmed from Mr. Marcos’s protest after losing in the vice-presidential race by a slim margin of about 260,000 votes to Ms. Robredo after leading by almost a million votes early on election day, 2016.

Mr. Marcos raised three issues before the Tribunal: “the ‘flawed’ Automated Election System (AES), the failure of elections in several provinces in Mindanao, and the unauthorized introduction by Smartmatic’s Marlon Garcia of a new hash code (or a new script/program) into the Transparency Server on the day of the elections.”

The first part of Mr. Marcos’s protest centered on the “demonstrated capability” of the vote-counting machines (VCMs).

He identified Ms. Robredo’s home province of Camarines Sur, as well as Iloilo and Negros Oriental provinces as his camp’s pilot provinces they wish to be subjected to a manual recount.

He likewise asked the PET to designate three hearing officers, one each to hear on a specific issue he raised to the Tribunal.

Ms. Robredo, for her part, identified Capiz, Sulu, and North Cotabato as pilot provinces. Her camp listed 670 witnesses to attest to the merits of her counter- protest. Some of their witnesses are non- registered voters whose votes were counted in contested provinces.

Both camps were ordered by the Tribunal to pay, in two tranches, for the resolution of their protests. The PET, on March 21, ordered Mr. Marcos to pay P66,223,000, and Ms. Robredo to pay P15,439,000.

Mr. Marcos paid the first tranche of P36 million on April 17, claimed that his supporters pooled the money for the payment. In a statement ear on Monday, Mr. Marcos said he will join an overnight vigil by his supporters.

Ms. Robredo, for her part, paid P8 million on May 2. She said the amount she produced was loaned by relatives.

Both camps are expected to pay the second tranche of the election bond on Friday, July 14. —