By Meanne Corvera
Eagle News Service
The camp of Senator Leila de Lima has asked the Senate Electoral Tribunal to cite former Metropolitan Manila Development Authority chair Francis Tolentino in contempt following his interview with the media about his electoral protest against her.
In a five-page motion filed by her lawyer, Teddy Rigoroso, De Lima–who finished twelfth in the latest senatorial elections– noted that Tolentino violated the sub judice rule when he granted the interview with reporters on Friday.
In the interview, Tolentino, who finished 13th in the 2016 senatorial elections, said that ballots for the 2013 elections were discovered in a ballot box used for the 2016 elections in Calbayog.
He also noted that he got zero votes in Isabela in Basilan, and in six municipalities in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
In the motion, De Lima said that Tolentino’s pronouncement “serves no purpose but to mislead the public and this tribunal.”
She noted that Tolentino “made no recovery on physical count in the areas where he alleged the existence of fraud and irregularities” during the first three days of “revision.”
“Yet publicly he acts as though he was a victim of fraud and the perpetrator was (me),” she said.
“It is respectfully prayed of this honorable tribunal that an order be issued citing protestant Tolentino in contempt and accordingly meted with appropriate sanction,” De Lima added.
In a text message, Tolentino said he would first study De Lima’s motion, a copy of which he has yet to receive, “and thereafter make a reply.”
The filing of De Lima’s motion comes after the SET ordered the conduct of a manual recount of the pilot precincts being questioned by Tolentino in his electoral protest.
Included in his protest were the provinces of Nueva Ecija, Bulacan, Iloilo, among others.
