Robredo to ask PET to reconsider P50,000 fine

VICE PRESIDENT Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo will ask the Supreme Court to reconsider its decision imposing a P50,000 fine for violating the gag order on the pending poll protest filed by former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. against her 2016 election victory.

Robredo, who was in Lamitan, Basilan for a visit to Yakan weavers as part of her office’s anti- poverty

Angat- Buhay program, was referring to the fine slapped earlier this week on both her and Marcos by the high court sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal ( PET). The Marcos camp said it would respect the ruling.

“The Supreme Court fined us for violating the gag order, and we will be filing a motion for reconsideration on this. If lies are being told to the public, we feel that we need to correct them,” Robredo, a lawyer, said.

The recent bone of contention between the two camps is Robredo’s pending appeal asking the PET to set the valid vote threshold on shaded ovals in the ballot for the ongoing manual poll recount to 25 percent.

This vote threshold was approved as a standard under a September 2016 Commission on Elections resolution.

However, Marcos lawyers favor the much higher 50- percent threshold used by PET for election protests involving the 2010 polls.

Robredo beat Marcos by 263,473 votes in the 2016 elections. Marcos is contesting Robredo’s victory and sought a manual recount of three provinces “best exemplifying poll fraud” – Camarines Sur, Iloilo and Negros Oriental.

A PET insider earlier told The

Manila Times that Marcos had yet to gain additional votes in the poll recount, which started last April 2.

As she marked her second year in office, Robredo remained confident that she won the race for the second highest elected post in the country.

“We are confident that in the end, we’ll know who the winner is. I am not bothered with anything because I am sure that I won the elections. I am sure that we had an honest and clean election,” Robredo said.