Bongbong to PET: Affirm ruling on protest vs Leni

MANILA, Philippines - Former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has asked the Supreme Court to affirm as a Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) its ruling in January allowing his election protest against Vice President Leni Robredo to proceed.

In a 25-page comment filed Friday, he asked PET to dismiss the appeal filed by Robredo and affirm its earlier finding that the protest is sufficient in form and substance.

“More than nine months have already gone by and all (that) Robredo has done is to file one dilatory motion after another. If (she) has nothing to hide, then she should do everything in her power to encourage – rather than hinder – this election protest to move forward,” read the pleading of Marcos’ lawyer George Garcia.

“The millions of voters who trooped to the polls nine months ago deserve no less. They want the truth to come out. The sooner the better,” it also read.

Marcos urged PET to order the immediate collection, retrieval, transport and delivery of ballot boxes from all 36,465 clustered precincts during the May 9, 2016 elections and to proceed with the preliminary conference as provided under Rule 29, aside from asking for a manual recount, judicial revision, technical examination and forensic investigation under Rule 37.

Garcia said the tribunal should not tolerate the duplicity of Robredo who has been insisting that she won the vice presidential race but has been opposing every move to prevent the truth from coming out.

“Robredo cannot have it both ways.  She cannot keep claiming that she won the elections fair and square and yet, behind everyone’s back, keeps finding ways to stop the truth from coming out.  The evidence of Marcos is probably the same evidence that Robredo has by now. If this is the case, one cannot help but wonder why she does not want the proceeding to move forward,” Garcia pointed out. – With Perseus Echeminada