Manila Bulletin

The PET recount drama

- By FLORO MERCENE

THERE’S an unfolding drama in the Presidenti­al Electoral Tribunal (PET) that bears watching due to the charges and counter-charges that are being hurled by the two protagonis­ts: Vice President Leni Robredo and losing VP contender Sen. Bongbong Marcos.

And the reason it is not occupying center stage at the moment is there are other pressing issues such as the TRAIN effects on prices, the Kuwait deployment ban, and the federalism issue.

Actually, the issue is at play mostly in social media as both camps hurl invectives at each other. What is somehow disappoint­ing is the fact that the camp of Bongbong Marcos is much to blame for the loss of interest in their cause. Twice, they have accused the Robredo camp of poll cheating and yet twice, they were rebuffed.

That is the trouble when somebody makes an accusation and falls flat on its face. People will tend not to believe the next accusation­s, especially when there is a second charge that is debunked later.

Last year, the Marcos camp shouted there was cheating in the SD cards. When they were asked for evidence, they failed to provide any iota of proof that the elections were rigged. That was the first letdown.

Then last month, they claimed they have evidence of cheating, showing to the media ballot images with square boxes instead of ovals. This was later on proven untrue.

For it was discovered that it was a new feature in the counting machines used in the 2016 elections and the Marcos camp was not present when this new feature was mentioned by the Comelec during a briefing.

So there. When an accusation is made, it should come out to be true because when this is proven false, the second charge of cheating in the elections that is again debunked makes the netizens doubt about future accusation­s.

It would seem that the Marcos camp has not come to wrestle with the fact that people are now tired of drama. And now they accuse Robredo of delaying tactics when they were the ones doing so that people become incredulou­s about their claims.

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