By Moira Encina
Eagle News Service
The Office of the Solicitor General has asked the Supreme Court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, to uphold its earlier decision junking Vice President Leni Robredo’s bid for the use of a 25-percent ballot threshold in the ongoing manual recount.
In asking the PET to uphold its April 10 decision, the OSG, acting as the people’s tribunal, noted that it was the PET that was the “sole authority to judge all contests relating to the election, returns and qualifications of the president or vice president,” based on the Constitution.
“The use of the word ‘sole’ in Section 4, Article VII of the Constitution emphasizes the exclusivity of the PET’s jurisdiction over election contests relating to the President or Vice President,” the OSG said, noting the cases of Angara v. Electoral Commission, Tecson v. Comelec, Macalintal v PET and Marcos v Manglapus cases, among others, where this was allegedly upheld.
According to the OSG, having said this, the PET has already made a determination on “the issue of what threshold will be used in the consideration of votes.”
In Rule 43, Paragraph (I) of its 2010 rules, the OSG said the PET said that “marks or shades that are less than 50 percent of the oval shall not be considered as valid votes.”
As for Robredo’s claim the 25 percent threshold was imposed by the Comelec, the OSG said the poll agency in the first place “has no jurisdiction over vice presidential electoral contests.”
“The Comelec is empowered to prescribe the rules to govern the procedure and other matters relating to election contests under Section 254 of B.P. Blg. 881, the Omnibus Election Code. This jurisdiction, however, is limited by Section 249 of the same law to contests relating to the elections, returns, and qualifications of all members of the Batasang Pambansa and elective regional, provincial, and city officials only,” the OSG said.
In addition to this, the OSG noted that the 50 percent threshold imposed by the PET was not unreasonable, as it was “based on the inability of the human eye to distinguish the 25 percent threshold,” based on the PET’s resolution dated April 10.
It also dismissed Robredo’s claim the application of the 50 percent threshold will disenfranchise voters, saying that the Comelec, prior to the conduct of the 2016 presidential and vice presidential elections, “consistently reminded the voters to shade the oval spaces in the ballots fully.”
It said even the ballot issued the same reminders.
“Differently stated, insofar as the voters were concerned, they knew that for their votes to be counted, they should fully shade the oval space. Therefore, the supposed disenfranchisement that would result in the application of the 50 percent threshold has no basis,” the OSG said.