Marcos asks PET to revisit initial recount result

MANILA, Philippines – Former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has asked the Supreme Court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, to again look into the preliminary results of the recount in connection with his electoral protest against Vice President Leni Robredo.

“It is most respectfully prayed of this Honorable Tribunal to reconsider, review and re-examine the preliminary appreciation conducted on the pilot protested provinces of Camarines Sur, Iloilo and Negros Oriental,” read Marcos’ 595-page memorandum.

Marcos said the preliminary appreciation of votes by the committee “erroneously overruled” his objections in favor of Robredo without giving him the opportunity to present his evidence.

In October last year, the PET has released the result of the initial recount from the three pilot provinces with Robredo’s lead increasing from 263,473 to 278,566.

READ: PET: Robredo maintains, increases lead over Marcos

While PET rules stated that the protest should be dismissed if there is no significant recovery on the initial recount, the body opted to give parties the chance to comment on the results.

Marcos said aside from not giving him the opportunity to present his evidence, he also noted that the signatures of the board of election inspectors (BEI) were “glaringly different” from those in other election documents, causing the committee to reject the ballots to Robredo’s votes “without first verifying the basis for the rejection of the ballot’s by the Vote Counting Machine (VCM) and whether replacement ballots were issued to the concerned voter during the elections.”

Marcos’ protest against Robredo was filed in June 2016. Robredo filed a counter-protest. The two cases were consolidated.

On his other cause of action, Marcos said “the protest can and must proceed independently of the result from the recount, revision and re-appreciation of ballots.” The second cause of action involves the provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, and Basilan. Here, he said manual recount and revision must be conducted.

He reminded the PET that as early as 2017 he had moved for the examination of ballots in the three Mindanao provinces citing as reason terrorism, intimidation and harassment of voters.

As a result of the discrepancies, Marcos said the committees added the rejected ballots to Robredo’s votes “without first verifying the basis for the rejection of the ballot/s by the Vote Counting Machine (VCM) and whether replacement ballots were issued to the concerned voter during the elections.”

Marcos pointed out that his second cause of action in the three pilot provinces involved the misappreciation in the counting of ballots which require manual recount and revision. In the three Mindanao provinces, he said, he sought the annulment of the results.

Thus, he stressed, “the protest can and must proceed independently of the result from the recount, revision and re-appreciation of ballots.”

He reminded the PET that as early as 2017 he had moved for the examination of ballots in the three Mindanao provinces.

Marcos’ protest against Robredo was filed in June 2016. Robredo filed a counter-protest. The two cases were consolidated by the PET.