PET resets anew recount on VP poll

The Supreme Court (SC), sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), has deferred anew the recount of votes in the vice presidential race in 2016 for resolution of the poll protest filed by former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. against Vice President Leni Robredo.

The schedule for the recount, which was set for March 19, has been moved to April 2, according to a notice from the tribunal received by both camps.

It was originally set last February but was reset this month.

The PET cited the insufficiency in number of revisors as reason for the delay.

It told parties during meeting last Tuesday that only 42 revisors passed the new mandatory psychological evaluation and there was a minimum of 50 vote revisors required to proceed with the recount, according to lawyer Vic Rodriguez, spokesman for Marcos.

“Reason of PET is only 42 of the 50 revisors have qualifed/passed the psychological exam. According to them, whether or not they can fill the remaining eight, manual recount will proceed on April 2,” Rodriguez explained.

Robredo’s camp said the PET is expected to call for another meeting to finalize the procedures for the recount.

“We trust the PET in these proceedings as it is in our best interest to finish this protest to quash any doubt about the choice of the Filipino people and the victory of Vice President Leni Robredo,” said lawyer Maria Bernadette Sardillo, one of Robredo’s legal counsels.

The ballot recount, as ordered by the tribunal, would cover the three pilot provinces of Camarines Sur, Iloilo and Negros Oriental, which were chosen by Marcos as the best provinces where he could prove the irregularities he cited in his poll protest.

Robredo won the vice presidential race in the May 2016 polls with 14,418,817 votes or 263,473 more than Marcos’ 14,155,344 votes.