Robredo supporters urge PET to apply 25% threshold on vote validity

MANILA, Philippines — Supporters of Vice President Leni Robredo have appealed to the Presidential Electoral Tribunal to use 25-percent of shading threshold to determine the validity of votes.

Robredo’s supporters from her home province, Camarines Sur, trooped to the Supreme Court, that sits as PET, on Wednesday to submit their one-page letter of appeal and list of signatures.

“We are asking you, honorable justices, to reconsider your decision and determine whether it is right and just that the votes of the people that were previously counted [in the 2016 national elections] will be outright discarded [in the recount] due to a change in the rule,” they said in Filipino.

“The change in determining the percentage of threshold is clearly a violation of the law and disregard of our vote for the vice president,” they added.

The group is asking the tribunal to apply the 25-percent threshold, instead of 50-percent, in determining the validity of votes in the vice presidential race.

This is in support of Robredo’s appeal to the tribunal asking for the same action. The vice president, in her motion, said that the Commission on Elections applied the 25-percent threshold during the 2016 national elections.

RELATED: Robredo camp: No evidence yet on lost votes

Her appeal noted that she received 358 votes in Barangay Laganac, Balatan, Camarines Sur. Upon the application of the 50-percent threshold, a physical recount of the ballots yielded 346 votes for the vice president. Votes for Marcos did not change in the tally.

“[I]n simple terms, the votes for protestee Robredo was decreased by 12 votes while the votes for protestant Marcos was maintained,” the motion reads.

Romulo Macalintal, Robredo's legal counsel, stressed that the noted decrease in votes is merely an observation by their camp. The tribunal has yet to issue a ruling or an update on the recount procedure since it started on April 2.

The tribunal has ordered the camp of former Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and the Comelec to file their respective comment on Robredo’s motion.

The recount on the vice presidential race started last month, with ballot boxes from towns in the province of Camarines Sur.

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.

RELATED: Marcos tells Robredo: Better observe silence during recount