Pangilinan tells Marcos camp to ‘move on’ from loss in 2016 polls

ALFONSO, Cavite — Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. should “move on” from his loss in the 2016 elections, Senator Francis Pangilinan said.

In an interview with reporters, Pangilinan said the Presidential Election Tribunal (PET) should dismiss the electoral protest of Marcos.

Marcos claimed he was a victim of massive fraud during the 2016 elections, where he lost to Vice President Leni Robredo.

“Ang position namin dun eh dapat sundan yung dapat sundan ang Rule 65. Ano ba ang allegation? Massive fraud, sino ba namili nung pilot provinces para mapatunayan yung massive fraud? Siya (Marcos), Ano bang napatunayan dun sa tatlong pilot province? May massive fraud ba? Wala,” Pangilinan, president of the Liberal Party, said.

(Our stand: follow Rule 65. What’s the allegation? Massive fraud, but who picked the pilot provinces where massive fraud was suspected? Marcos. What else should be proven? Massive fraud? There’s none.)

Under Rule 65 of the PET rules, if upon the revision of ballots and reception of evidence “the Tribunal is convinced that, taking all circumstances into account, the protestant or counter-protestant will most probably fail to make out his case, the protest may forthwith be dismissed.”

“Bakit kailangan pang pumunta sa ibang, para maghanap ng massive fraud? Eh wala na nga massive fraud dun sa pinili eh, dapat (i)-dismiss…Dapat mag-move on na sa talo nila no’ng 2016,” the senator went on.

(Why go to other areas to look for massive fraud when there’s no fraud happened in the three pilot provinces. Move on. They lost in 2016.)

The PET earlier did not rule on the committee report on the result of the revision of ballots from three pilot provinces chosen by Marcos — Camarines Sur, Iloilo and Negros Oriental.

Instead, it asked both parties to comment on the report and submit memoranda on other issues relating to the jurisdiction as well as about Marcos’s third cause of action which seeks to nullify election results for the vice presidency in Lanao Del Sur, Basilan and Maguindanao./ac