Bongbong wants case vs Leni set for hearing
Former senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. wants to get the ball rolling in his election protest against Vice President Leni Robredo before the Supreme Court (SC).
In a two-page motion filed yesterday, Marcos asked the SC, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal ( PET), to proceed with the hearing on his protest and set the case for preliminary conference.
Marcos’ lawyers led by George Garcia lamented the tribunal composed of 15 justices has not acted on the protest, docketed as Case No. 005, in the past four months.
The lawyers stressed that “the last pleading joining the issues in this election protest case had been filed and serviced as early as 9 September 2016.”
A preliminary conference is supposed to be held after filing of all pleadings by the parties, as provided under the 2010 Rules of the PET.
It is when members of the PET meet with parties in the case and set the issues to be resolved by the tribunal.
Just like the preliminary conference in trial, parties would also be asked to summarize the evidence and counter-evidence they plan to submit.
Marcos, as the protestant, would also be asked to post a specific amount of cash bond to the PET to cover for the expenses needed for the resolution of the case – including possible recount of ballots.
Marcos filed the protest on June 29 last year, accusing the Robredo camp of cheating in the May 9 elections.
Robredo emerged the winner in the vice presidential race after beating Marcos with 14,418,817 votes or 263,473 more than the former senator’s 14,155,344.
Marcos sought annulment of about a million votes cast in three provinces – Lanao del Sur, Basilan and Maguindanao. His camp also wants a recount in 22 provinces and five cities.
Robredo filed her answer in August and sought the dismissal of the protest for lack of merit and jurisdiction of PET.
Robredo’s lawyer Romulo Macalintal said he is willing to stake his professional license to practice law if Marcos could prove the allegations of cheating.
Macalintal urged Marcos to withdraw his election protest against Robredo and for his spokesman Victor Rodriguez to surrender his license as a lawyer, if they could not prove their claim that the 13 Secured Digital ( SD) cards from the 26 unused Vote Counting Machines (VCMs) contained data that “confirmed massive electoral fraud.”
In a letter sent to Marcos’ election lawyer Garcia on Wednesday, Macalintal said he will wait for Marcos and Rodriguez in front of the Manila Cathedral on Jan. 31 at 10 a.m. to jointly sign an agreement.