Robredo to PET: Release initial recount results

MANILA, Philippines — The camp of Vice President Leni Robredo is asking the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) for a copy of the summary and committee report on the recount of ballots from the three pilot provinces identified in the vice presidential election protest.

Robredo’s lawyer Romulo Macalintal filed yesterday with the Supreme Court (SC), sitting as the PET, a six-page urgent motion that they be furnished with a copy of the committee report on the revision, recount and re-appreciation of ballots from Camarines Sur, Negros Oriental and Iloilo.

Macalintal said they filed the urgent motion after SC spokesman Brian Keith Hosaka announced that the PET has concluded and finished the recount and revision of the ballots from the three pilot provinces involving 5,417 precincts.

Since then, there had been various speculations that came out in the media.

“If only to put to rest the speculations and in the greater interest of transparency, Maria Leonor G. Robredo respectfully asks the parties be furnished with a copy of the Summary and Committee Report on the revision, recount and re-appreciation of ballots from the three pilot provinces,” said Macalintal.

He also argued the parties need to be apprised of the real result of the revision, recount and re-appreciation of votes from the three provinces.

In an Oct. 3 interview, Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin said, “There is no definite voting yet or anything that happened in that particular case.”

Former senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. filed the electoral protest in June 2016 to contest Robredo’s lead of a little over 260,000 votes, the closest vice presidential race in recent memory.

Under PET rules, they need to count the votes in the three pilot provinces.

It will now be PET’s task to decide on the matter, based on the report submitted by member-in-charge SC Associate Justice Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa on the pilot provinces if the vote revision on the 39,221 clustered precincts covering 27 provinces and cities identified by Marcos in his election protest will proceed.

Marcos’ lawyer Victor Rodriguez said the camp of Robredo should stop “bullying” the SC justices with its filing of the motion for a copy of the report on the recount.

“Mrs. Robredo and her cabal should refrain from making a mockery of the legal process, accord the Presidential Electoral Tribunal the highest respect, cease bullying the honorable Justices and stop deceiving the Filipino by requesting from the high court, through a preposterous motion, copy of something that she already has,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez also voiced objection to the alleged distribution of leaflets last month that showed Robredo ahead in the recount.

“As early as Sept. 10 when it was initially made public that a decision is forthcoming, supporters of Mrs. Robredo already gathered outside of the Supreme Court in such a celebratory mood and proclaiming victory complete with leaflets depicting figures alleged to have been sourced from a draft decision,” he added.

According to the poll body, Robredo got 14,418,817 votes, or 263,473 votes more than the 14,155,344 votes received by Marcos.

Even after the vote recount, the leaflet reportedly showed that Robredo even widened her lead from Marcos in the vice presidential race.

She received 14,438,750, as against 14,159,535 votes for the former senator, or a difference of 279,215 votes.