Robredo seeks dismissal of Marcos Jr.’s poll protest
Vice President Leni Robredo on Monday asked the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) to dismiss the election protest filed by former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos.
In her 536-page answer, Robredo, through her lawyers Romulo Macalintal and Ma. Bernadette Sardillo, said the issues raised by Marcos are not proper grounds for an election protest.
Subject of Marcos protest is the reopening of ballot boxes in each of the 36,465 clustered precincts in Cebu, Province of Leyte, Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental, Masbate, Zamboanga Del Sur, Zamboanga Del Norte, Bukidnon, Iloilo Province, Bohol, Quezon Province, Batangas, Western Samar, Misamis Oriental, Camarnes Sur, 2nd District of Northern Samar, Palawan, Sibugay, Misamis Occidental, Pangasinan, Isabela, Iloilo City, Bacolod City, Cebu City, Lapu-Lapu City and Zamboanga City.
Marcos is also asking the PET to annul the election results in Lanao Del Sur, Basilan and Maguindanao where the ballots have been pre-shaded and a recount of 22 provinces and five cities.
Marcos said part of his petition is about the “flawed” Automated Election System (ES).
For one, the petition noted that an automated system should have a demonstrated capability and should have been successfully used in a prior electoral exercise. However, the vote counting machines (VCM) which were part of the components of the automated system supplied by Smartmatic have no “demonstrated capability” nor records of success in prior electoral exercises either in the Philippines or in any other country.
“Since there were no records as to how ‘successful’ the VCMs worked in the past, the procurement of the same was highly suspicious,” the petition stated.
But Macalintal and Sardillo said that the “first part” is just practically a complaint by Marcos against the Comelec in the lease of the Vote Counting Machines (VCMs) from Smartmatic alleging, among others, that said machines have no record of prior use in other elections in other countries.
“The tribunal has no jurisdiction to rule on his first cause of action,” Sardillo told reporters.
She said an election protest is a contest between two candidates and not a case involving the problem between Comelec and Smartmatic.
The second part of Marcos’ petition consists of the more “traditional” modes of cheating like vote buying, pre-shading, intimidation and failure of elections.
Sardillo said it is a mere series of wild accusations, guesses, and surmises which renders it miserably wanting in sufficiency both in form and substance.
“In other words, the allegations of election fraud and irregularities are without specification and substantiation, of where and how these occurrences took place,” Robredo, through counsel, said adding that as held in Pena vs. HRET, this is a fatal omission, as it goes into the very substance of the protest.
“The Supreme Court held in that ruling that it cannot allow an election protest based on such flimsy averments to prosper, otherwise, the whole election process will deteriorate into an endless stream of crabs pulling at each other, racing to disembark from the water,” she added.
As to the part where Marcos called for the annulment of the results of the elections in the provinces of Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao and Basilan, Robredo asked the PET to immediately discard this cause of action based on the recent decision of the high court in the case of Abayon vs HRET last May 3 where it was held that in order to annul the results of an election, it must be shown that “the illegality of the ballots must affect more than 50 percent of the votes cast on the specific precinct or precincts sought to be annulled, or in case of the entire municipality, more than 50 percent of its total precincts and the votes cast therein.”
She said Marcos failed to present any evidence nor even allegation to show her direct or indirect participation in any of the alleged incidents of election fraud and that there is nothing to show that at least 50 percent of the ballots cast were affected or 50 percent of the municipalities involved more than 50 percent of its precincts were totally affected.
“The provinces of Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao and Basilan consist of 86 municipalities and two cities and a total of 2,756 clustered precincts. To annul the results in these three provinces, following the doctrine in Abayon case, Marcos must show that at least 50 percent of 88 municipalities and cities or 44 municipalities/cities or 50 percent 2,756 clustered precincts or 1,378 clustered precincts had been affected by the said electoral frauds alleged by Marcos in his protest,” Robredo’s answer stated.
She stressed that the electoral protest against her only cited four municipalities in Lanao del Sur; one municipality in Maguindanao and four municipalities in Basilan or a total of only 9 areas or a measly 10 percent of the 88 municipalities and cities of these three provinces to have been allegedly affected by his allegations of frauds and irregularities in these areas.
“Surely, this does not comply with the 50 percent affected-ballot requirement laid down by the SC to justify the annulment of the results of the election. More so with the failure of Marcos to allege or cite any evidence to directly point to Vice President Robredo as the one responsible, directly or indirectly, in the commission of the alleged electoral frauds,” she added.
Likewise, Robredo’s answer dismissed Marcos’ claim that the changes in the transparency server also changed the results of the election and the existence of an alleged queue server.
“The changing of the source code for the Comelec’s transparency server was not a fraudulent act or irregularity that affected the results of the May 2016 elections for Vice-President. The Comelec already explained that the source code changes did not affect the data collected by the transparency server,” she added in her answer.
Lastly, Robredo said her proclamation by Congress – acting as the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC) – was based on the data transmitted by the canvassing laptops of the various provincial boards of canvassers that elected their own representatives in Congress and that the NBOC did not use the data collected in the Comelec’s transparency server in the canvassing of the votes for President and Vice President, which came from the various VCMs all over the country.
“The review of the source code was made by the poll body with due notice and invitation to all political parties and in the presence of said political parties. And for emphasis, there is no queue/intermediary server used during the 09 May 2016 National and Local Elections. The problem with Marcos is that he did not attend any of the review of the source code conducted by the Comelec despite notice and invitation by the Comelec,” she added.
