Leni, Bongbong asked to submit contested returns

THE SUPREME Court, acting as Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), has directed Sen. Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. and Vice President Leni Robredo to furnish the Commission on Elections (Comelec) copies of election returns in question that will be subject of review on the alleged cheating in May 9 national elections.

In a briefing, SC spokesperson Theodore Te said the tribunal also asked the Comelec to send a copy of its Aug. 10 letter to Marcos and Robredo.

“The tribunal directed the Comelec to send a copy of its Aug. 10, 2016 letter to the parties within a nonextensible period of five days,” said an SC briefer on Tuesday.

The electoral tribunal also “required parties to submit their comment on the Comelec’s letter within a period of 10 days from receipt of the letter.”

In a petition to the Supreme Court on June 29, Marcos accused Robredo of massive cheating during the May 9 elections and asked the high court to issue a Precautionary Protection Order (PPO) on election returns and asked for the reopening of the certificates of canvass (COCs).

The high court issued a PPO on July 12 but the Comelec asked the high court to issue an order to clarify if the election materials and paraphernalia used during the May 9, 2016 elections, which do not contain any election results data—are also covered by the PPO.

The Comelec also asked the high court to issue an order authorizing the Comelec and Smartmatic-Total Information Management (TIM) to immediately conduct the closure and stripping of all the vote-counting machines (VCM) and Consolidated and Canvassing System (CCS) kits including the immediate disposal of the VCM external batteries.

The high court was also asked to issue authorization for Comelec to back up the contents of the VCM SD cards of all the 92,509 clustered precincts and the CCS laptop of all municipalities, cities and provinces under the instant PPO.

The Comelec also wants the high court to issue an order to approve preliminary discussion between the Comelec and counsel and the PET on the protocol and procedures for the “stripping and backing activities including an ocular inspection of the Comelec warehouse in Sta. Rosa, Laguna where the activities will be conducted.”

The Comelec also asked the high court to order “confirming the closure and stripping activities of the Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) which were conducted prior to the receipt of the instant PPO.”