Marcos wants PET outing with Robredo revisor probed

MANILA, Philippines — The Supreme Court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, was asked yesterday to investigate the swimming party of PET personnel involved in the manual recount of votes for the 2016 vice presidential race in the company of a revisor of Vice President Leni Robredo.

In a 10-page urgent motion and manifestation of grave concern, the camp of former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. informed the PET of the outing of the tribunal’s 24 head revisors, alternate head revisor, appraiser, ballot box custodians or handlers and chief tabulator at a resort in Calamba City in Laguna on June 22, which was attended by Robredo’s revisor Osmundo Abuyuan.

Marcos, through his lawyer George Garcia, questioned the propriety of the presence of a representative from Robredo’s camp in the outing.

“Fraternizing with the party revisor for the protestee is obviously prohibited by this honorable tribunal since this act is prescribed not only by the Code of Conduct for Court Personnel but also by the Canon of Judicial Ethics,” read the pleading.

Garcia said they learned about the outing through the Facebook account of PET head revisor Maria Katrina Rosales when she posted the photos of their Pansol outing on June 24. 

On July 2, Rosales deleted the photos from her Facebook account apparently to “rectify her mistake of publicly posting the incriminating photos of their outing.”

The camp of Marcos was able to screen grab the photos and submitted these to the PET, including the names of its personnel in attendance.

Leni: Nothing wrong

Robredo’s camp defended the attendance of one of her revisors in the outing.

“We don’t find anything wrong with the swimming party because all revisors from the Marcos and Robredo camps were invited by the PET,” Robredo’s lawyer Romulo Macalintal said in a statement.

“In fact, we are wondering why they are asking for an investigation when they sent food to the event,” he added.

Macalintal said the PET head revisors should be lauded for this move “considering the growing tensions during the revision proceedings as reported in the press.”

“The PET should not be disturbed of its more important functions than be bothered by this trivial incident,” he said.

Revisors are in charge of recounting and assessing which ballots should be considered as valid votes for the candidates involved in an electoral protest.

The PET is conducting recount of votes from Camarines Sur and Iloilo, two of the three pilot provinces identified by Marcos in his protest. The third province is Negros Oriental. 

The results of the ballot recount in the three provinces will determine if Marcos’ electoral protest against Robredo has any merit. – Helen Flores