Robredo camp says Marcos should pay P185M for poll protest

MANILA, Philippines — The camp of Vice President Leni Robredo is asking former vice presidential candidate and Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. to pay P185 million for all the clustered precincts covered by his election protest.

At a press briefing on Monday morning, Robredo’s election lawyer, Romulo Macalintal, said the Marcos camp should not only pay cash deposits of P66 million for the 36,465 clustered precincts but for all the 92,509 clustered precincts covered by the latter’s poll protest.

The Robredo camp’s call came after the Supreme Court sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) ordered Marcos to pay P66 million as cash deposit for the bringing of the contested ballots and election documents  from established precincts to the tribunal.

On the other hand, the resolution dated March 21, also asked Robredo to pay P15.4 million as cash deposit for her counter protest covering 31,278 clustered precincts.

Marcos earlier filed a protest questioning the integrity and reliability of the Vote Counting Machines (VCMs), Consolidating Canvass System (CCS) units, secure digital (SD) cards and other storage devices used for the 92,509 clustered precincts during the May 9, 2016 local and national elections. He called this protest his “First Cause of Action.”

Macalintal also countered the PET’s computation saying that if every party shall pay P500 per established precinct, the total assessment for Marcos should be P185 million since his protest covers 369,138 established precincts. The latter's number of established precincts was based on the projected total number of precincts released by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in the 2016 polls.

The poll lawyers of Robredo also said that Marcos, upon filing his election protest, asked the PET to issue a precautionary protection order over the ballot boxes, election documents, paraphernalia such as VCMs, CCS units, SD cards and other storage devices in all the clustered precincts.

‘No evidence yet’

Macalintal clarified that Robredo’s camp is not taking for granted its obligations to the court but asked why they should pay cash deposits first when there are no evidence present yet. He and another lawyer, Maria Bernadette Sardillo, already filed this manifestation with the PET last April 12, 2017.

Robredo’s camp assured the public that it is willing to comply with the payment of cash deposit but added that the vice president still has a pending Motion for Reconsideration regarding the sufficiency in form and substance of Marcos’ protest.

“Kailangan patunayan muna ni Mr. Marcos na talagang meron po siyang ma-rerecover na mga boto. Kailangan siya muna ang magpa-deposit, siya muna ang magpa-bukas ng mga balota at makita natin kung talagang may basehan ang kanyang protesta,” Macalintal said.

“E bakit kami magde-deposit ng P15- million pero pagkatapos naman pala ay wala naming mangyayari? So iyan ang hinihingi naming sa Korte Suprema,” he added.

According to reports, electronic voting company Smartmatic is asking the Comelec to pay P2.1 billion for failing to return the VCMs on December 2016, its deadline. These VCMs were not returned to the voting company due to Marcos’ poll protest.

Meanwhile, Macalintal said it would take around 740 days before the 36,465 clustered precincts will be reviewed. “Wala kaming idea kung kalian matatapos ito,” he said of the protest.