SC junks Bongbong poll protest vs Robredo

MANILA, Philippines, February 17 ------ The Supreme Court (SC), sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), yesterday affirmed the victory of Ma. Leonor “Leni” Robredo in the 2016 vice presidential race as it dismissed the electoral protest filed by former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. SC spokesman Brian Keith Hosaka yesterday announced that the 15 members of the PET “unanimously” voted to dismiss the electoral protest filed by Marcos against Robredo in 2016.

“Today, Feb. 16, 2021, the Supreme Court sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal unanimously dismissed the electoral protest filed by former senator Bongbong Marcos against Vice President Leni Robredo. This is in connection with Presidential Electoral Tribunal case titled: Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., protestant, versus Ma. Leonor “Leni Daang Matuwid” G. Robredo, protestee, PET Case No. 005,” Hosaka said.

At 5 p.m. yesterday, the PET clarified that it dismissed the election protest for “lack of merit” and that the counter-protest filed by Robredo “is likewise dismissed.” “Out of the 15 members of the tribunal who were present in today’s meeting, seven members fully concurred with the dismissal, while eight concurred in the result,” he added. Hosaka was unable to provide the names of the PET members who fully concurred with the dismissal and those who only concurred with the results since he has not yet been given a copy of the resolution that was penned by the members of the tribunal. He also could not answer if Marcos could still appeal the dismissal of the electoral protest case. He added that parties to the case would be given copies of the PET’s resolution.

On June 29, 2016, Marcos filed an election protest contesting the win of Robredo in the vice presidential race, and asked that her proclamation as vice president be nullified. Based on the official tally of the National Board of Canvassers, Marcos lost by 263,473 votes to Robredo. During the 2016 elections, Robredo garnered 14,418,817 votes while Marcos got 14,155,344 votes. In his 1,200-page petition, Marcos, in his First Cause of Action, questioned the integrity and reliability of the automated election system (AES) that was supplied by Smartmatic.

The SC dismissed Marcos’ First Cause of Action in 2017. In the Second Cause of Action, the former senator raised the massive electoral fraud, anomalies and irregularities in 39,221 clustered precincts located in several provinces of the country, citing that terrorism, violence and threats were rampant in these clustered precincts and that there were allegedly no actual elections that took place in Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao and Basilan.

In his protest, Marcos also named the provinces of Camarines Sur, Iloilo and Negros Oriental as his pilot areas for the recount and revision of ballots. This covered 5,415 precincts. In its Oct. 15, 2019 resolution, the PET said: “Thus, based on the final tally after revision and appreciation of the votes in the pilot provinces, protestee Robredo maintained, as in fact she increased, her lead with 14,436,337 votes over protestant Marcos who obtained 14,157,771 votes. After the revision and appreciation, the lead of protestee Robredo increased from 263,473 to 278,566.” The first PET member-in-charge of the protest was Associate Justice Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa before the case was reportedly transferred to Associate Justice Marvic Leonen.

Source: philstar.com