MANILA, Philippines — The camp of former Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. urged the Presidential Electoral Tribunal to look into an “outing” of staff conducting the election recount that a "revisor" from the camp of Vice President Leni Robredo joined.
On Monday, Marcos filed a manifestation before the tribunal to ask for an investigation into a June 22 outing attended by Robredo’s “revisor,” 24 head revisors from the tribunal, alternate head revisor, appraiser, ballot box custodians/handlers and chief tabulator of the PET.
The event may have caused an “infiltration” of the PET personnel by the Robredo camp, Marcos claimed.
Revisors are the people in charge of the recount of contested ballots from the pilot provinces in the case. A revisor from each camp and a head revisor from the PET compose a committee for the recount.
Marcos said a certain Osmundo “Ritchie” Abuyuan, a revisor from Robredo’s team, attended the “outing.”
“It is highly plausible that the camp of the protestee, through her party revisor Abuyuan, already infiltrated and curried favor with these PET personnel in order to manipulate, influence and/or control the revision proceedings and maneuver the revision results in her favor,” he said.
Marcos’ camp stressed that a head revisor and their alternate have “control” over the conduct of the judicial recount and ballot revision. They are “also in charge of initially determining whether the ballots found inside the ballots are valid, rejected, or stray.”
The Marcos camp added: “It is imperative for this Honorable Tribunal to immediately investigate this incident and impose the appropriate sanctions on these PET personnel, the protestee and her party revisor.”
Last week, it was the Robredo camp that asked the PET to look into their allegation that one of Marcos’ staff brought in a magnifying plastic lens, one of the prohibited items in the recount procedure, into the revision area.
READ: Robredo camp asks PET: Direct Marcos' lawyer to name people complicit in magnifying lens incident
The PET has slapped both camps with a 50,000-peso fine for their alleged transgressions of the sub judice, which prohibits parties from discussing in public an ongoing case. — Kristine Joy Patag