(Eagle News Service) — The Supreme Court, acting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, has denied Vice President Leni Robredo’s motion for reconsideration of an order for her to pay an amount for her electoral counterprotest to move forward.
In a media briefing on Tuesday, Theodore Te, SC spokesperson, said the PET directed Robredo, who filed the counterprotest in response to an electoral protest filed against her by former Senator Bongbong Marcos, to pay the cash deposit stated in its previous order.
On March 21, the PET ordered the vice president and Marcos, who ran against her in the May 2016 elections, to pay poll fees amounting to P81.46 million.
Marcos deposited his first payment of P36.23 million before the April 14 deadline, but Robredo failed to pay the first tranche amounting to P8 million.
The PET has given the two until July 14 to pay the second tranche of their protest and counterprotest fees—Marcos, P36.23 million, and Robredo, P7.639 million.
According to Te, the vice president was given a “nonextendible” deadline of five days from notice of the resolution to comply with the PET’s newest order.
He added the tribunal “deferred action on Marcos’ omnibus motion to dismiss the counterprotest until the protestee (Robredo) complies.”
In a statement, Robredo’s lawyer, Romulo Macalintal, said they have yet to receive a copy of the PET order and “(were) still waiting for more details.”
Nonetheless, he said they “respect the decision of PET.”
He added they “would like to reiterate (Robredo’s) willingness to comply with her obligation to pay the P8 million for her counterprotest.”
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