Retrieval of ballot boxes from Iloilo underway

The Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) was able to retrieve 1,474 ballot boxes from Iloilo province for the vice presidential electoral protest.

The camp of Vice President Leni Robredo said the ballot boxes from Iloilo’s districts 1 to 3, along with those from Estancia town, were turned over by local elections officers to PET from May 21 to 23 at the staging area in Jaro, Iloilo City.

The tribunal has to retrieve 2,318 ballot boxes until May 25.

As of Thursday, the remaining boxes from Passi City, Anilao, Banate, Barotac Nuevo, Dingle, Duenas, Dumangas and San Enrique were being retrieved.

Ballot boxes from the municipalities of Ajuy, Balasan, Barotac Viedo, Batad, Carles, Concepcion, Lemery, San Dionisio, San Rafael and Sara will be delivered next to the PET.

Once all ballot boxes are received by the PET, the retrieval team will bring them to the Supreme CourtCourt of Appeals Gymnasium in Manila for the recount.

“The recount for Iloilo will happen after Camarines Sur. So now, I think, out of the 1,800 ballot boxes of Camarines Sur, 800 were recounted. So after that, Iloilo will be next,” Robredo’s legal consultant Emil Marañon III said.

The lawyer noted the retrieval went smoothly in Iloilo except for some incidents caused by “acts of God.”

He was referring to the boxes from the municipality of Oton that were drenched by rain last Monday. PET personnel had to move them to a dry portion of the staging area.

A Commission on Elections (Comelec) official from Miagao reported last year that several ballot boxes and their contents were destroyed by rainwater leaking through a hole in the roof of the warehouse where they were stored.

Marañon said there were “no external signs” the ballot boxes that will be used for the recount were tampered with.

Robredo’s legal team has been closely monitoring the retrieval process. “We also don’t want the public to be misled because in our experience with Camarines Sur, the camp of (Ferdinand) Bongbong Marcos used the damaged and wet ballots in their PR (public relations) stunt,” Marañon said.

Iloilo is one of the three pilot provinces identified by Marcos in his election protest. The other two are Camarines Sur and Negros Oriental.