Leni more worried over legal fees in Marcos protest

Vice President Leni Robredo said Wednesday she was more concerned with the legal fees involved rather than the substance of a disqualification case filed against her by losing rival and former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.

“We know the accusation is baseless. I will leave it up to the lawyers to answer. But we are not worried about explaining because we are not hiding anything,” Robredo told a news conference.

“If I have any worry (about the protest), it would be how much the legal fees would cost and where would I get the money. I cannot charge it to (the Office of the Vice President) and I do not have personal money to pay for it,” she explained.

She said her lawyers, including lead counsel Romulo Macalintal, volunteered their services to her for free during the canvassing.

It would be doubly embarrassing for her should Macalintal be made to work on a “full blown case” without being paid, the vice president said.

Ready to defend votes

But Macalintal said Vice President Robredo should not worry about his fees, saying that he was ready to defend the votes “entrusted to her by the people.”

“We don’t talk about attorney’s fees because we are both lawyers,” he said in a statement. “And as a lawyer, I am ready to serve my fellow lawyer without having to

discuss attorney’s fees.”

The Supreme Court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), has given Robredo 10 days to respond to Marcos’ protest.

The PET also directed the Commission on Elections to retrieve the electoral returns in question for a manual recount, judicial revision, and technical examination.

Robredo, a lawyer, said she was not bothered by the PET directive as it was part of the “normal course of any case.”

The Vice President said she wanted the protest resolved as soon as possible so that she could concentrate on work.