Bongbong asks PET to set electoral case for pre-trial

MANILA, Philippines — Former Sen. Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. filed a motion before the Supreme Court, acting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), to set his electoral protest for preliminary conference.

Marcos had filed a case before the tribunal challenging the victory of Vice President Leni Robredo in the May 2016 national elections.

The Marcos camp said that the election protest case had been filed and served as early as Sept. 9, 2016.

"However, this Motion is being filed without prejudice to the outcome of the pending incidents in this case," the motion read.

Earlier this month, the PET ignored the plea of the defeated vice presidential candidate to preserve the vote counting machines (VCMs) in connection with his protest.

The tribunal granted the request of the Commission on Elections to conduct stripping activities of election paraphernalia.

The poll body argued that most election paraphernalia, including the VCMs, do not contain election results.

The Robredo camp had warned Marcos not to give out wrong information claiming that data in unused secure digital cards is evidence of a massive electoral fraud.

“We stand by our position that all the votes cast for and received by Robredo were valid votes and we are confident that the results of the verification and examination of the ballots will confirm her victory and the defeat of Marcos in the last election,” Lawyer Romulo Macalintal, lead counsel for Robredo, said.