Robredo appeals anew 25% threshold on vote validity

MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Leni Robredo on Thursday morning has asked the Presidential Electoral Tribunal to reverse its earlier ruling that junked their appeal to apply the 25 percent threshold for the ongoing vote recount.

Robredo, flanked by her legal counsels Romulo Macalintal and Bernadette Sardillo, personally trooped to the Supreme Court, that sits as the PET, to file the motion for reconsideration.

LOOK: Vice President VP Leni Robredo files appeal before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) to bring back vote threshold to 25%. | via Edd Gumban pic.twitter.com/iCGFXyNCCI

— The Philippine Star (@PhilippineStar) April 19, 2018

The motion is in connection with the ongoing ballot recount on the vice presidential race, as initiated by the poll protest of former Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. against her.

Addressing her supporters outside the SC compound, Robredo said in Filipino: “What we are asking for is what has been the standard in the past election’s voting, and what has been the standard for other candidates, is what would be the standard for ours.”

“Right from the start, we are giving our trust to the process, to the PET. That trust, that is what we are holding on to, that will bring us the truth,” she added.

The vice president is asking the tribunal to apply the 25 percent threshold, not 50 percent in determining the validity of votes. Her camp cited the Random Manual Audit Visual Guidelines, Random Manual Audit Report and the 2010 PET Rules in supporting her claim

But the PET, in a five-page resolution dated April 10, junked her appeal and said: “The Court is not aware of any [Commission on Elections] Resolution that states the applicability of a 25% threshold; and the Tribunal cannot treat the Random Manual Audit Guidelines and Report as proof of the threshold used by the COMELEC.”

Based on a STAR report, unnamed sources said that the vice president already lost about 5,000 votes due to the threshold rule.

The vice president declined to detail the motion, citing the warning issued by the tribunal to refrain from discussing the case in public due to the sub judice rule — a prohibition on discussing a case that is pending in court.

Both the camps of Robredo and Marcos were ordered by the tribunal to explain why they should not be cited in contempt for violating their earlier issued resolution warning them of sub judice rule.

Marcos filed the protest on June 29, 2016, claiming that the camp of Robredo committed electoral fraud in the May 2016 national polls.

In his protest, the son of the late dictator contested the results in a total of 132,446 precincts in 39,221 clustered precincts covering 27 provinces and cities. He sought for a recount in Camarines Sur, Iloilo and Negros Oriental covering a total of 5,418 clustered precincts. The recount started on April 2.