Marcos, who ran for vice-president in 2016 elections, filed an electoral protest at the Supreme Court against incumbent Vice-President Leni Robredo. / AFP / Ted Aljibe
(Eagle News) — The camp of former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. faced the camp of former rival and now Vice-President Leni Robredo before the Supreme Court for the first time on Tuesday, during the preliminary conference on his electoral protest questioning the results of the 2016 vice-presidential race.
The hearing was done behind closed doors, but Marcos, in a press conference said he was pleased that his electoral protest filed with the high court sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) had already moved.
“What is clear with the justices is that they are very interested in proceeding to the arguments and finally to the revision of the counting of votes. We are thankful that the justices are also interested on how to speed up the process so that our people will really know the real count of votes,” Marcos said in a press conference on Tuesday, July 11.
Present during the preliminary conference were eight justices of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice Lourdes Sereno.
The former senator filed the electoral protest petition in June last year, saying that Robredo benefited from cheating in the 2016 polls. He asked for the annulment of about a million votes cast in Basilan, Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao.
Presence of “interim server” admitted by Smartmatic, says Marcos
In a separate interview, Marcos said he believed that an “interim server” had been used during the 2016 national elections were the poll results had been manipulated before being sent to the server of the Commission on Elections.
“It has already been admitted by Smartmatic, by the personnel of Smartmatic,” he said in an interview with CNN Philippines’ “The Source.”
He said that during one of the meetings in a case filed against Smartmatic in Manila regarding violation of the cybercrime law, Smartmatic officials themselves admitted the presence of another server.
“During one of the meetings during that case, they admitted that there was indeed another server,” Marcos Jr., said.
“There is much that we have been able to find in the interim year since May 9, that will clearly indicate that this is what happened,” he said.
Marcos said that their IT guys were able to show that there was another source of allegedly manipulated election results before they were sent to the COMELEC server.
Our IT guys are able to show – from looking at ISP addresses – that there was in fact — na may ibang pinanggalingan,” he said.
“We are going to show on our side that these anomalies happened,” he said.
He also explained how the hashCode was changed at the middle of the vote count
Marcos is contesting the poll results from 132,446 precincts in 39,221 clustered precincts covering 27 provinces and cities.
He is also seeking the recount of votes in Camarines Sur, Iloilo and Negros Oriental.
Robredo won by a margin of only 263,473 votes. She got 14,418,817 as against Marcos’ 14,155,344 votes.
Her lawyers are against the electoral recount.
But her previous petition to dismiss the electoral protest case had been junked by the high court after finding Marcos’ protest case sufficient in form and substance.
Robredo’s lawyer, Atty. Maria Bernadette Sardillo said one of the high court justices claimed it would be “logistically hard for the tribunal to conduct the recount.”
Robredo camp says electoral protest meant Marcos doubting presidential poll results
She also said that if the Marcos camp was questioning the results of the vice-presidential race, then it meant they were also doubting the results of the presidential race.
““Iisa lang ang certificate of canvass for President and Vice-President. Kung sasabihin mo na wala kang tiwala sa certificate of canvass, then ibig sabihin noon wala ka ring tiwala sa resulta ng Presidential elections, at maaaring mabakante ang posisyon ng Presidente,” she said.
But the Marcos camp said this was a wrong interpretation by the Robredo camp of their electoral protest case.
Marcos counsel accuses Robredo camp of delaying protest case
Marcos’ counsel, George Garcia, accused the Robredo camp of trying to delay the electoral protest case by raising issues that should not have been part of the case.
“Good thing the tribunal really wanted to open the ballot boxes because they really wanted to find out the truth,” he noted.
”Ang importante sa amin makapagsimula na, inexpect namin magkakaroon na ng collection of ballot boxes in the next few weeks at least dun sa 3 provinces na pilot provinces naming. Every now and then ipapatawag ang mga parties para i-consult lagi kung ano ang gagawin ng tribunal para we are likewise be guided,” he added.
Marcos supporters held a vigil in front of the Supreme Court along Padre Faura in Manila since Monday night until the Tuesday afternoon to show support for the former senator.