Marcos, Robredo ordered to deposit P81.46 M for poll protest

MANILA, Philippines — The Supreme Court, acting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), has ordered former Sen. Bongbong Marcos and Vice President Leni to raise a total of P81.46 million for the former's election protest.

The tribunal's rules provide that the cash for the protest and counter-protest is P500 for each precinct involved if they would require the bringing of contested ballot boxes and election documents.

Marcos called for a manual recount on 36,365 clustered precincts while he requested for the annulment of the results of 2,756 clustered precincts. The total 38,221 clustered precincts are composed of 132,446 precincts.

In a resolution disclosed on Monday, the tribunal required Marcos to deposit a total of P66,223,000 for the 132,446 precincts.

Meanwhile, Robredo was ordered to raise P15,639,000 for the 31,278 precincts included in her counter-protest.

Both camps are required to pay the cash deposit in two installments on or before April 14 and July 14.

The Marcos camp has filed a motion for reconsideration before the PET order of payment for his electoral protest, according to a report from The STAR.

The PET resolution was signed last March 21 but was only released on April 10.

The tribunal earlier affirmed its jurisdiction over Marcos' protest against Robredo. Section 4, Article VII of the 1987 Constitution provides that the PET is mandated to be the sole judge of all protests concerning the election, returns and qualifications of the president or vice president of the country.

The PET had also denied the counter-protest of Robredo to dismiss the protest of Marcos. The tribunal ruled that the electoral protest is sufficient for the case to proceed.