Bongbong fully pays P66M in poll protest vs Robredo

The receipt on the left shows the last installment made by former Sen. Ferdinand Bongbong on Tuesday, July 11, 2017, for his electoral protest against Vice President Leni Robredo. TETCH TORRES TUPAS / INQUIRER FILE

Former Senator Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. on Tuesday paid the remaining P30 million for his electoral protest against Vice President Leni Robredo.

The payment was contained in two checks–one for P15-million and another one for P15.2-million. Marcos paid the balance ahead of the July 14 deadline set by the Supreme Court sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET).

The PET ordered Marcos to pay P66,223,000 for the 132,446 precincts for his election protest.

He paid the initial amount of P36.2-million on April 17.

READ: Bongbong Marcos pays P36-M first installment of poll protest fee

The PET will conduct its preliminary conference on Marcos’ protest and Robredo’s counter-protest.
Marcos earlier said he decided to file the electoral protest due to the series of frauds, anomalies and irregularities that marred the May 9, 2016, elections and that such activities led to his loss to Robredo, the vice presidential candidate of the Liberal Party.

Bongbong Marcos arrives at the Supreme Court to attend the pre-conference of the election protest on Tuesday, July 11, 2017. -PHOTO/Grig C. Montegrande, INQUIRER

Robredo won the 2016 vice presidential race with 14,418,817 votes or 263,473 more than Marcos, who got 14,155,344 votes.

The PET earlier designated hearing officers to assist in the reception of evidence. Appointed are retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Jose C. Vitug as the chairperson of the panel of commissioners. His members are Atty. Angelito C. Imperio and Atty. Irene Ragodon-Guevarra.

The panel of commissioners, the PET said shall assist in the reception of evidence pursuant to Rule 55 to 62 of the PET rules.

Under the rules, the panel shall set the date for the reception of evidence of all the parties involved in the protest and counter-protest.

The same panel shall receive the affidavits of witnesses and hear their direct testimonies of witnesses as well as their cross, re-direct and re-cross examination. The hearing commissioners also has the authority to rule on the objects made in the course of the cross-examination subject to review by the PET.

After the hearing, the hearing commissioners shall submit all the evidence presented as well as the transcripts of the proceedings before the PET.

The first part of Marcos petition was about the Automated Election System (AES). He said the vote counting machines (VCM) which was one of the components of the automated system supplied by Smartmatic has no “demonstrated capability” nor was it ever successfully used in a prior electoral exercise either in the Philippines or in any other country.

The second part of his petition consists of the more “traditional” modes of  cheating like vote buying, pre-shading, intimidation and failure of elections, among others.

He specifically asked for 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, Camarines 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 recount of 22 provinces and five cities.

The third part of the protest focused on the unauthorized introduction by Smartmatic’s Marlon Garcia of a new hash code (or a new script / program) into the Transparency Server as well as the effects brought about by the unauthorized change.CBB/rga