Justice Caguioa wants out of Marcos-Leni case

about as he defended himself from allegations of conspiracy and bad faith in handling the case, which is pending before the SC that sits as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET).

President Rodrigo Duterte last week said he would resign as President, but only if Marcos succeeded him in Malacañang.

In an internal memorandum addressed which was obtained by TheManilaTimes,

Caguioa said he would recuse himself from the case as member in charge to avoid any suspicion against his person.

continue to participate in the election over results of the race for vice president in the 2016 elections.

The ponente is the magistrate whose draft ruling in a case is voted upon by the en banc.

Caguioa wrote the internal memoran for inhibition by Marcos against him over his alleged biases.

In his extremely urgent motion to inhibit, Marcos said he had discovered that Caguioa’s wife, Pier Angela “Gel” Caguioa, was not only anti-Marcos but also an ardent supporter of Robredo, having actively campaigned for her during the May 2016 elections.

“This is, in my mind, for the best, as any resolution on this sensitive issue would certainly give rise to another round of politicking, and it is ideal that this be resolved by the en banc with me no longer being the member-in-charge,” the associ

Caguioa pointed out that he had been very fair from the start as ponente when

and pilloried in both the press and social media as having intentionally delayed the start of the revision process and that, to date, I continue to delay and derail the process,” he said.

According to him, a preliminary confer- allegations in the protest and timeliness of a counter-protest and answer to the same - sions of pleadings by the contending par

“At the same time, my office closely coordinated and worked with PET commissioners and the Senate Electoral Tribunal in the drafting of the rules and guidelines for the conduct of the revision and preliminary appreciation of ballots,” Caguioa said.

He said they had revised close to 2,000

Caguioa added that they expected the revision of ballots from precincts in pilot provinces to be conclud year, barring any unforeseen events.

“This therefore belies any imputation of delay,” he said.

“I have been a good soldier, so to speak, and have handled this PET matter for the better part of two years, with all the professionalism, impartiality, competency and wisdom expected of me as a member of the court that sits as the tribunal,” Caguioa noted.

In his protest, Marcos assailed the election results in 39,221 clustered precincts -- 36,465 of which is covered by a manual results in the remaining 2,756 precincts invalidated.

Based on Commission on Elections data, the 39,221 clustered precincts are composed of 132,446 precincts.

Marcos lost to Robredo by 263,473 votes. He later accused her later of ben as pre-shading of ballots, pre-loading of Secure Digital cards, misreading of ballots and malfunctioning of vote counting machines or VCMs.

He also claimed that there was cheating based on the “abnormally high” unaccounted for votes or undervotes for the position of vice president.