Robredo lawyer: Marcos claim of dilatory tactic 'fake news'

MANILA, Philippines — A lawyer of Vice President Leni Robredo in the electoral protest against her by defeated candidate Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. denied that they tried to delay the decryption and printing of ballot images from the three pilot provinces that the former senator identified in his case.

Maria  Bernadette Sardillo, one of Robredo's counsels, said that they did not attempt to delay the process by filing any motion, and this could be proven by the official record of the proceedings, she said.

"In an unsurprising move, the camp of Mr. Marcos is once again peddling fake news, which can easily be belied by the Commission on Election’s official recording of the proceedings," Sardillo said in a statement.

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The Commission on Elections on Monday started the decryption and the printing of ballot images from Camarines Sur, Iloilo and Negros Oriental, the three pilot provinces where Marcos wants the poll agency to conduct a pilot recount.

According to the camp of Marcos, the COMELEC started to decrypt and print ballot images and other data in the Secured Digital cards in its main office in Manila on Monday after the Supreme Court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, gave the go signal to the poll agency.

Victor Rodriguez, a lawyer for Marcos, accused the counsels of Robredo of delaying the decryption after they brought only two revisors. However, this was denied by the COMELEC and proceeded to the decryption of the ballot images, starting with Camarines Sur, the home province of the vice president, according to Rodriguez.

READ:  Robredo lawyer: Marcos 'confused' on electoral protest

The Marcos lawyer also accused Robredo of trying to delay the case by questioning the efforts of the losing vice presidential bet to "expedite" its resolution in the past one and a half year.

According to Rodriguez, Robredo's lawyers questioned Marcos' move for the technical examination and evaluation of the election day computerized voters' list of the three provinces in the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao included in his poll protest.

“All these constant and spurious delaying tactics by the Robredo camp have been going on for more than a year now.  What are they afraid of? If they believe she won, they should be rushing to count the ballots so that this issue could finally be laid to rest, in her favor.  Instead, they have adopted a strategy of delay and obfuscation.” Rodriguez said.

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This indicated only one thing, according to Rodriguez, and this was, "they know that the recount will make the cheating by the Liberal Party as well as Robredo’s loss apparent to all."

Sardillo said that, instead of blaming them for the delays in the proceedings, Marcos should look at his own lawyers.

"Mr. Marcos should advise his lawyers to look promptly at their own submissions to the court and get their facts straight so they can say who has been causing delays in this case. After all, who failed to comply and submit the names of witnesses despite being directed to do so?" she said.

Sardillo explained that they sent only two revisors as they were not informed of the number of people that should be sent, adding that even the PET had only two revisors.

"We have always complied with all the orders of the PET and it is in the interest of the Vice President to resolve this case to further eliminate mind conditioning tactics Mr. Marcos is doing to the public," she said.

Rodriguez said that the PET had already ordered exploratory teams to start locating the ballot boxes in the clustered precincts of Camarines Sur, Iloilo and Negros Oriental for retrieval and transfer to Manila.

He claimed that this was a sign that the electoral protest body had already noticed the "holdup the proceedings" ploy of the camp of the vice president.

The PET, in a resolution dated Oct. 10, 2017, ordered the retrieval team to go to Camarines Sur either on Oct. 16 to 20, 2017 or on Oct. 23 to 27, 2017 to locate the concerned ballot boxes and map out the logistics needed for their retrieval and transfer.

“We are glad that the case is finally moving forward because each step forward is a step closer to the truth,” Rodriguez said.

Robredo won the vice presidency last year by a margin of more than 200,000 votes, but Marcos filed an election protest claiming fraud by the vice president's then-ruling Liberal Party.