Vice President Leni Robredo. FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Leni Robredo had a simple response to government lawyers’ move to support former senator Bongbong Marcos’ petition asking Supreme Court (SC) Associate Justice Marvic Leonen to inhibit from the poll protest case:
Lols — a modern-slash-millennial way to denote excessive laughter.
In a tweet on Monday, Robredo shared a social media card from One News discussing the Office of Solicitor General (OSG) decision to back the Marcos petition which was filed earlier — which came despite Marcos denying that he discussed the issue with Solicitor General Jose Calida.
lols pic.twitter.com/oXk4SOPcwX
— Leni Robredo (@lenirobredo) November 9, 2020
After the 2016 presidential elections, Marcos filed a poll protest against Robredo after the latter won by a small margin of around 200,000 — prompting some to speculate whether electoral fraud actually happened.
But in 2019, initial recounts done by SC, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), showed that Robredo actually gained more votes — 15,000 votes — in pilot recount areas that Marcos himself picked.
This prompted the seating Vice President to urge Marcos to accept the results of the polls.
Earlier, Marcos filed a petition before the Supreme Court asking for Leonen’s inhibition, which he based on the magistrate’s alleged hatred over his family.
Leonen is currently the justice-in-charge of the poll protest after a raffle was made to replace Associate Justice Alfredo as ponente of the case in 2019.
Marcos cited several cases where Leonen voiced negative opinions of his family, particularly during the hearings on whether his father, late dictator and former president Ferdinand Marcos should be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.
The former senator said that Leonen has expressed condemnation of his family over the issues hounding the older Marcos’ over two decades reign.
“It is clear that we’ll never get justice if Leonen is around because of his hatred towards me and my family. This is evidenced by his past decisions where he unequivocally condemned me and my family. It’s obvious he’s doing everything in his power to suppress the real story behind the 2016 Vice-Presidential elections, disenfranchising millions of Filipinos who wanted nothing but credible elections,” Marcos said.
The former president and his family have been criticized for plundering the country, amassing ill-gotten wealth while the patriarch was in power. He was also blamed for the deaths and disappearance of many political activists and administration critics during his time, with most of their ill-gotten wealth used to finance compensation for the victims’ relatives.
Earlier, Robredo’s lawyers Beng Sardillo and Emil Marañon told Marcos that he should stop acting like a brat who gets anything he wants, as his father has been ousted long ago.
According to Sardillo and Marañon, it is clear that Robredo won the 2016 polls.
“Face reality. Vice President Leni Robredo won. Twice,” the lawyers said. “Pagod na kami na hanggang ngayon, pagkatapos manalo sa eleksyon at sa recount, patuloy pa rin ang panggugulo at pagsisinungaling ni G. Marcos.”