PET orders Robredo, Marcos to explain gag order violation

The Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) ordered on Thursday both Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo and former Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. to explain in 10 days why they should not be held in contempt for violating its gag order on the proceedings involving the manual recount and revision of votes.

In a resolution issued April 12 in Baguio City, the PET – composed of all Supreme Court (SC) justices – also denied Robredo’s motion to use the 25 percent, instead of 50 percent, threshold on the shading of the oval on the ballot in determining the validity of the vote reflected in the ballot.

It ruled that “the Tribunal has no basis to impose a 25 percent threshold in determining whether a vote is valid,” adding that Robredo’s “claim of a systematic reduction of her votes is without basis and shows a misunderstanding of the revision process.”

On the gag order, the PET said that “in a Resolution dated Feb. 13, 2018, the Tribunal ordered the parties to strictly observe the sub judice rule pending the proceedings of the instant case” (Marcos protest versus Roberedo), and this was reiterated in its March 20, 2018 resolution.

But the PET said that “despite these stern directives of the Tribunal, several news reports have shown that the parties, their counsels and/or representatives, have nonetheless continued to disclose sensitive information regarding the revision process to the public, in clear violation of the aforementioned resolutions.”

“In this regard, to preserve the sanctity of the proceedings, both parties are hereby directed to show cause and explain why they should not be cited in contempt by the Tribunal.”