Is Bongbong withdrawing all pending motions in poll protest? PET wants to know

Former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and Vice President Leni Robredo. (INQUIRER FILE PHOTOS)

Former Senator Bongbong Marcos has yet to withdraw all pending motions to help expedite the process in his election protest against Vice President Leni Robredo.

This as the Supreme Court (SC), sitting as Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), gave him 10 days to inform the body if he intends to file a motion to withdraw all pending motions to accelerate the proceedings in his case.

In a two-page resolution, the PET noted that Robredo’s camp has already filed a motion to withdraw all their pending motions related to the poll protest.

“Protestee [Robredo] states that there are no such pending motions which could or would delay the recount process. Nonetheless, protestee moves that if there are such motions in the records of the Tribunal, the same be considered as duly abandoned or withdrawn,” the PET pointed out.

Earlier, Marcos dared Robredo’s camp to abandon all of their pending motions before the PET to hasten the proceedings in the election protest. Both parties have been accusing each other of causing delays in the resolution of the case by filing various motions.

Marcos had said that both camps should sign a joint manifestation to withdraw all pending motions to expedite the proceedings. But Macalintal said that a manifestation is a “wrong pleading” and that they have already filed the motion to withdraw all pending pleadings before the PET.

Macalintal said they are waiting for Marcos to do the same.

Marcos filed the electoral protest on June 29 2016, claiming that the camp of Robredo cheated in the May 2016 automated elections.

Marcos is seeking for the annulment of about a million votes cast in three provinces – Lanao del Sur, Basilan and Maguindanao.

In his protest, Marcos contested the results in 132,446 precincts in 39,221 clustered precincts, covering 27 provinces and cities.

During a preliminary conference briefing, Marcos also sought for a recount of votes in Camarines Sur, Iloilo, and Negros Oriental.

Robredo filed her answer in August 2017, and filed a counter-protest, questioning the results in more than 30,000 polling precincts in several provinces where Marcos won.

She also asked for the dismissal of Marcos’ election protest for lack of merit and jurisdiction of PET.

The high tribunal, in a ruling earlier this year, junked Robredo’s plea and proceeded with the case after finding the protest sufficient in form and substance.

Robredo won in the 2016 vice presidential race with 14,418,817 votes, or 263,473 votes more than Marcos’ 14,155,344 votes.  /kga