(Eagle News) – The Supreme Court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), affirmed its earlier declaration that the electoral protest of former senator and then vice-presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos was “sufficient in form and substance.”
With this decision, the PET junked the poll protest case filed by Marcos’ rival, Vice-President Leni Robredo, and would likely proceed to recount the votes cast in the very controversial and hotly contested May 2016 vice-presidential race.
In an eight-page resolution dated January 24, 2017 and released only on Thursday, the SC said the “matter of sufficiency of the protest,” was “already beyond dispute.”
This meant that the PET would proceed to hear Marcos Jr’s electoral protest case against Robredo who allegedly benefitted from vote transfers, and had thus allegedly won because of manipulative cheating in the May 2016 elections.
“On the matter of the sufficiency of the protest, the same [is] already beyond dispute. With the issuance of the summons, the Tribunal has found the protest to be sufficient in form and substance,” the court ruling read.
“The protest contained narrations of ultimate facts on the alleged irregularities and anomalies in the contested clustered precincts, which the protestant needs to prove in due time,” the PET ruled.
Marcos filed the case on June 29, 2016 contesting the results of the vice presidential elections. He said Robredo won through cheating.
The former senator claimed Smartmatic vote-counting machines used for the automated polls were used to transfer votes from him to Robredo.
Marcos contested the 263,473 lead by Robredo, and asked the PET to annul about a million votes cast in Lanao del Sur, Basilan and Maguindanao.
Robredo filed her answer last August and sought to dismiss Marcos’ poll protest.
“The protestee’s prayer to dismiss the protest for lack of jurisdiction and for being insufficient in form and substance is denied,” the PET said in the resolution, referring to Robredo’s court action to have Marcos’ poll protest case dismissed.
-Marcos camp welcomes PET ruling-
The Marcos camp welcomed the court resolution, saying that they just want “the truth to come out.”
“We are hoping that with this resolution, there will be an end to all these delays and we can finally move forward.
There is a need to ferret out the truth as to what really transpired during the vice presidential race last May,” said Marcos spokesman Victor Rodriguez said.
“We just want the truth to come out. It’s that simple,” he said.
“There is a need to ferret out the truth as to what really transpired during the vice presidential race last May,” he added.
-VP Robredo downplays SC resolution
The camp of Vice-President Robredo, however, downplayed the PET ruling, saying it was a mere procedural action.
“It only means that the PET will proceed with the case. It does not in any way reflect the validity or merits of any allegation of fraud or irregularity contesting the proclamation of Vice President Leni Robredo,” Atty. Romulo Macalintal said in a statement on Thursday.
He claimed that the PET was only giving Marcos a chance to prove his case.
-Vote recount next-
But Macalintal, Robredo’s lawyer,admitted that there would be a recounting of ballots cast during the May 2016 elections because of the ruling.
“The case would still go through the usual tedious and lengthy process of revision and recount of the ballots. The ballot boxes and their contents would be retrieved from various provinces to be brought to the PET for the recount,” he added.
“It should be emphasized that the purpose of assailing the substance of Marcos’ protest is to verify its compliance with the strict requirements of the rules as applied by the Supreme Court in various election protest,” Macalintal said.
“Our aim is to expedite an early resolution of the case in order to avoid further speculations on its status,” he added.
Robredo filed her affidavit on August 2, 2016 arguing that the problem between the Commission on Elections and Smartmatic should not be taken against her.
She described Marcos’ allegations of cheating and vote transfers as a “series of wild accusations, guesses, and surmises.”
But the PET rejected her move to dismiss the case, and would proceed to recount the ballots cast in the May 2016 elections.