MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Leni Robredo called out former Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., saying he is using the ongoing electoral case to remain in the public eye.
In a press conference on Tuesday morning, Robredo addressed the latest accusation of Marcos on the ongoing election recount before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal.
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Marcos on Monday urged the tribunal to look into an outing of revisors where a staff from the camp of Robredo joined. He said that the event might have caused an “infiltration” by the Robredo camp.
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 each committee for the recount.
But the vice president said Marcos should just stop lying as he knows about the event.
Robredo said she only found out about the outing on Monday. Her legal counsel, Romulo Macalintal, issued a statement to answer Marcos’ accusation.
“He (Marcos) knows the truth. My request is... I wish he would stop lying because it seems like he is using this case to have a platform to remain in the public eye,” she said in Filipino.
Macalintal earlier said there is nothing wrong in the outing as both camps were invited to join.
“In fact, we are wondering why they are even asking for an investigation when they sent food to the said event,” he added.
Marcos, in his manifestation, attached photos of the supposed outing where a certain Osmundo “Ritchie” Abuyuan, one of Robredo’s revisors, joined 24 head revisors from the tribunal, alternate head revisor, appraiser, ballot box custodians and chief tabulator of the PET in an outing last June.
No need to disqualify revisors
The vice president also said that she sees no need to disqualify the revisors as the outing was to help ease the tension among the staff conducting the recount that entered its third month.
“I only knew of the real story yesterday. Apparently, for quite some time now, the situation has been tense inside [the revision area], so the head revisors thought to invite both camps in a gathering,” Robredo said.
“This gathering apparently was a swimming party,” she added.
The vice president said she is unaware if Marcos’ staff attended, but one of her staff did.
“But that is the only thing that I know, that he knew about the event because, in fact, he provided food,” Robredo added.
Last month, Robredo’s camp urged the PET to look into the bringing in of a prohibited item—a plastic magnifying lens—in the revision area by one of Marcos’ revisors. Macalintal also said that the tribunal should order Victor Rodriguez, Marcos’ spokesperson, to identify others who were aware of the incident.
The PET has earlier slapped both camps with a P50,000-peso fine for their alleged transgressions of the sub judice, which prohibits parties from discussing in public an ongoing case. — Kristine Joy Patag