Robredo wants Iloilo City ballots excluded from pilot recount

MANILA, Philippines — Ballot boxes from Iloilo City should not be included in the retrieval of election boxes from the province of Iloilo as the two are separate and independent from each other, a consultant for Vice President Leni Robredo’s legal team said on Monday.

According to Emil Marañon III, Iloilo City is not part of Iloilo province, one of the three pilot provinces identified by former Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. in his election protest against the vice president.

Iloilo City became independent of the province through Commonwealth Act 158 and was later classified as a highly-urbanized city.

“The only issue we have seen is as regards the City of Iloilo because we have to remember that the pilot area protested by Bongbong Marcos is the province of Iloilo, and we know for a fact that Iloilo City is not part of Iloilo,” he said in an interview with reporters.

“We’re looking into the possibility to clarify with the Supreme Court as regards the coverage of the retrieval in Iloilo,” he added.

READ: 'This is fake news': Robredo calls out report claiming she lost over 21,000 votes

The Supreme Court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, is handling the electoral protest of Marcos, the son of the late strongman who committed thievery and human rights abuses while in office from 1965 to 1986.

However, pending the clarification, ballot boxes from Iloilo City, along with those from the second district of Iloilo province, would be retrieved on Tuesday.

Ballot boxes drenched by rain

Meanwhile, several ballot boxes from the municipality of Oton got drenched by rain on Monday afternoon. The said ballot boxes had already been moved by the PET staff to a dry area in the staging location in Jaro, Iloilo.

Several weeks ago, Marcos claimed that wet ballots from a Camarines Sur town that members of the recount panels of the PET found were evidence of fraud during the conduct of the 2016 elections in the province.

Romulo Macalintal, Robredo’s lead election lawyer, dismissed the claims and said that the PET could go to the ballot images captured by the vote-counting machines if voting papers were rendered unreadable.

Aside from Iloilo province and Camarines Sur, Marcos also designated Negros Oriental as his third pilot province. He should be able to demonstrate a substantial recovery of votes in these areas for the PET to order a recount of other provinces where he alleged fraud was committed. Without this substantial recovery, the PET will junk his protest.

On Monday, the PET started retrieving ballot boxes from several municipalities in Iloilo. The process is expected to last until Friday.

Robredo trumped Marcos in Iloilo province after getting more than 573,000 votes against the former senator’s more than 94,000 votes. In Iloilo City, Robredo got more than 137,000 votes while the son of the late dictator got only more than 33,000 votes.

READ: Robredo camp slams Marcos attempt to influence recount