Philippine Daily Inquirer

Binay seeks junking of Roxas protest

- Tarra Quismundo

VICE PRESIDENT Jejomar Binay has asked the Presidenti­al Electoral Tribunal (PET) to throw out the 5year-old protest filed by presidenti­al rival Mar Roxas against his victory in the 2010 vice presidenti­al race.

In a petition, Binay’s camp cited Roxas’ apparent “lack of interest” in pursuing his protest, which has stalled since he filed it, according to Binay, “with the eagerness of a bridegroom on his wedding night” in July 2010, after Binay was proclaimed Vice President.

Binay said Roxas’ ‘’inaction on his protest… is clear evidence of his lack of interst in pursuing his case.”

Binay noted how similar cases had been dismissed due to the protesting candidates’ inaction “for a mere six months.”

Roxas ran with President Aquino under the Liberal Party banner in 2010. He questioned the results of the vice presidenti­al race, citing 2.6 million annulled votes. He also asked that 26,000 compact flash cards containing election results be opened.

Reopening the ballots would cost Roxas millions of pesos.

Binay said that while Roxas’ protest had not progressed, he continued to “cast doubt upon the… elections based on his conjecture­s, which are also trumpeted in media, that the [election system] was not reliable and its integrity has been compromise­d.”

“Thus, he has virtually succeeded in his ingenious ploy to keep a cloud of doubt hanging over the results of the 2010 elections,” Binay said.

Binay, the United Nationalis­t Alliance standard-bearer, is to face Roxas again in the 2016 elections, this time for the presidency.

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