Robredo lawyers slam Marcos' 'deceit, lies' to electoral tribunal

MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Leni Robredo on Tuesday blasted what her camp labeled as moves by former Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to deceive and lie to the Presidential Electoral Tribunal by presenting non-registered voters as witnesses in the defeated vice presidential candidate's electoral protest.

Marcos, who lost the vice presidency to Robredo by a little more than 200,000 votes, is alleging in his electoral complaint that the vice president and the erstwhile ruling Liberal Party committed fraud during last year's national election.

Marcos, the son of the late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos whose rule was marred by massive cases of rights abuses and corruption, has chosen three provinces, Camarines Sur, Iloilo and Negros Oriental, as pilot areas that would allegedly demonstrate major discrepancies between cast ballots and those transmitted by the vote-counting machines and reported by the Certificates of Canvass.

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Robredo's lawyers said that Marcos deceived the PET by submitting a list of witnesses from the provinces of Lanao Del Sur, Maguindanao and Basilan who were not registered voters during last year's local and national polls.

Romulo Macalintal and Maria Bernadette Sardillo submitted a manifestation and comment to the PET on behalf of the vice president detailing the supposed lies of Marcos to the tribunal.

“In his vain attempt to convince the Honorable Tribunal to conduct a technical examination of election documents in the Provinces of Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao and Basilan, Marcos has practically resorted to misleading if not totally deceptive representation,” Macalintal said in the manifestation.

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During the preliminary conference on July 11, both parties agreed to identify three witnesses per clustered precinct and submit their names to the PET, a requirement that Marcos failed to comply with, according to Robredo's lawyers.

Marcos was able to submit the names of 8,000 alleged registered voters following its failure to submit them for the second time on August 29.

“Contrary to these baseless claims, if not outright falsehood, the alleged witnesses identified by protestant Marcos are not registered voters,” Macalintal said.

Macalintal said that with this latest finding the electoral protest of Marcos against the vice president was already bereft of facts.

“Marcos must be reminded that the Honorable Tribunal is a court of law which deals with facts supported by evidence,” Macalintal said.

“The plain truth is, the Election Protest filed by protestant Marcos is not supported by his own supposed evidence,” he added.

In September, the PET upheld the integrity of the 2016 elections which Marcos questioned in his electoral case.

In the same ruling, the PET ordered the retrieval of all ballot boxes and other election paraphernalia from the provinces that Marcos wanted to include in his protest.

The son of the late dictator originally wanted to reopen the ballot boxes in 22 provinces and three urban areas which had a total of 36,000 clustered precincts.

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