Palace respects SC decision to junk Marcos poll protest vs Robredo
MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang on Tuesday said it respects the decision of the Supreme Court (SC), sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), to dismiss the election protest of former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos against Vice President Leni Robredo.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the Palace also respects that Marcos has a “further remedy” of moving for reconsideration.
“’Yan ay desisyon ng kataas-taasang hukuman, we respect that and we respect also that the camp of Senator Bongbong Marcos has a further remedy of moving for reconsideration,” he said in a briefing in Davao City.
(That is the decision of the high court and we respect that and we respect also that the camp of Senator Bongbong Marcos has a further remedy of moving for reconsideration.)
READ: PET dismisses Marcos poll protest vs Robredo
Marcos, son of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos, lost to Robredo by 263,473 votes in the May 2016 elections.
In October 2019, the PET in its report said Robredo’s lead grew by around 15,000 votes after a recount of ballots from the 5,415 clustered precincts in Camarines Sur, Iloilo, and Negros Oriental.
Meanwhile, President Rodrigo Duterte’s chief legal counsel Salvador Panelo said the PET’s unanimous decision on the poll protest “appears to validate Robredo’s win on the basis of law and of the evidence presented before it by both parties.”
“Perforce, rule of law has prevailed. Due process was evidently observed with both parties having been given the opportunity to present their respective cases,” he said in a statement.
He added that supporters of Marcos have to accept the verdict of the PET “no matter how wrong or unacceptable to them” since that is the rule of the majority.
“We have to abide by the precepts of democracy. We can not be blinded by our personal biases for a particular candidate, That is how democracy works. The minority must submit and concede to the majority,” Panelo continued.
Marcos’ camp has maintained that the dismissal of his poll protest against Robredo only deals with its second cause of action and not the entire petition.
