PET denies Marcos plea to probe court staff outing
The Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) has denied the plea of former Sen. Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. to investigate last month’s Laguna party of its personnel where a revisor of Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo showed up.
In a resolution released yesterday, the PET – composed of all Supreme Court justices – said: “We deny the motion to investigate as the Tribunal has already commenced and concluded its investigation relative to the subject ‘Pansol outing.’”
Marcos asked the PET to investigate an out-of-town party of
its personnel and a revisor of Vice President Robredo that may “compromise” the results of the on-going manual recount and revision of ballots in the contested 2016 vice -presidential election.
In a manifestation of grave concern, Marcos’ lawyers told the PET that 24 revisors and officers of the tribunal with a revisor of Robredo had an overnight outing at a resort in Pansol, Calamba last June 22.
The lawyers said they learned about the overnight party “through the Facebook account of PET Head Revisor Maria Katrina (Che-Che) Rosales when she posted the photos
of the ‘Pansol outing’ on Sunday, June 24, 2018.”
But in a counter-manifestation, Robredo’s lawyers told the PET that “protestant Marcos and his revisors were well aware of the said outing as they were invited as well. Surprisingly, it is only after more than two weeks that protestant Marcos is asking for an investigation.”
Her lawyers even asked the PET to release the closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage that would show Marcos’ revisor Roderick Miranda delivering snacks at the tribunal’s office days before the outing on June 22.(Rey G. Panaligan)