(Eagle News) — The camp of Vice President Leni Robredo was not sincere in its offer to sign a joint motion that will result in the withdrawal of all their motions before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal.
Former Senator Bongbong Marcos made the comment after Robredo’s lawyers filed their motion to withdraw before the Supreme Court sitting as the PET on Thursday.
He was camped out in front of the SC to ask for the recount in connection with his electoral protest against Robredo, and which was supposed to start on that day.
“You cannot conduct the business of a case that is before the Supreme Court in a pizza parlor, that’s not a serious offer,” Marcos said, referring to the Robredo camp’s previous invitation to sign the joint motion in a restaurant in Manila.
In the end, neither one of them signed the document prepared by the other.
Marcos’ spokesperson, Atty. Vic Rodriguez, added that the motion filed by Robredo was “a mere scrap of paper and may be later disowned by her as having been signed without her authority” since it was not signed by the vice president.
He said only the name of Atty. Romulo Macalintal, Robredo’s counsel, was on the document.
Marcos also noted that the motion only withdraws motions that have been filed and does not cover those that may be filed in the future.
The PET has scheduled for March 19 the start of the ballot recount.
Robredo was declared winner of the vice presidential race in the May 2016 elections, with 14,418,817 votes via a vis Marcos’ 14,155,344 votes.