Bongbong to seek nullification of votes in 3 provinces

MANILA, Philippines - The camp of former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. will seek the nullification of votes in three provinces in Mindanao where they claimed that the election results were irregular.

Marcos’ lawyer George Erwin Garcia said they will ask the Supreme Court sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) to nullify election results in Maguindanao, Basilan and Lanao del Sur due to alleged irregularities during the canvassing of ballots.

He said the total number of votes if added would show that there was over or under voting during canvassing.

“The numbers do not represent the genuine votes of the people,” Garcia told radio dzMM.

He said that they have already identified three other provinces where the initial batch of ballot boxes would be retrieved for the recounting of votes by the PET.

He, however, declined to reveal the provinces for “strategic reasons.”

Earler, Marcos said that in order not to delay further the election protest he filed against Vice President Leni Robredo, his friends and supporters have donated money to enable him to post the initial P36 million cash deposit required by the PET.

In a letter submitted to the PET by Marcos himself, some 40 friends and supporters said they pooled their resources for the former senator to come up with the initial cash deposit after the electoral tribunal last week gave him less than 48 hours to comply.

Marcos, through Garcia, received the PET’s order dated March 21, 2017 only on April 10, 2017 requiring him to pay P66.223 million to cover the cost of retrieval of the ballot boxes and other election paraphernalia in contested precincts.

The tribunal ordered him to pay in two installments – the first amounting to P36.023 million cash deposit to be paid on or before April 14, 2017 and the balance of P30 million on or before July 14, 2017.

The P200,000 filing fee initially paid by Marcos had been deducted from the cost.

Insisting that it is not delaying the electoral protest of Marcos, the camp of Robredo blamed yesterday the “many defects” found in the petition to determine who really won the 2016 vice presidential race. – With Helen Flores