What Went Before: Key dates in the VP electoral protest

MANILA, Philippines — Following are the key dates in the vice presidential electoral protest filed by Ferdinand Marcos Jr. against Leni Robredo.

• May 30, 2016—Leni Robredo is proclaimed Vice President, edging Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. by 263,473 votes in the May 9, 2016, elections. Robredo wins with 14,418,817 votes while Marcos gets 14,155,344.

• June 29, 2016—Claiming Robredo’s victory was marred by fraud and irregularities, Marcos files an electoral protest in the Supreme Court, which acts as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET).

• Jan. 24, 2017—The PET says Marcos’ complaint is sufficient in form and substance, and “beyond dispute,” paving the way for a formal hearing.

• June 16, 2017—Marcos asks the PET to conduct a vote recount in three pilot provinces that supposedly reflected poll irregulaties—Camarines Sur, Robredo’s home province; and Iloilo and Negros Oriental, where she posted landslide wins.

• April 2, 2018—A manual recount starts in the gym of the tribunal’s parking building on Padre Faura Street in Manila. It is the first for PET to hold an actual recount of votes.

• Oct. 18, 2019—The PET finds Robredo maintaining and even increasing her lead, from 263,473 to 278,566, over Marcos.

• Dec. 19, 2019—Robredo and Marcos file their final arguments. She cites the court’s own rules and argues that the protest should be dismissed since Marcos failed to get more votes during the ballot revision and recount in the pilot provinces he himself had chosen. Marcos asks the PET to annul the votes in Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao and Basilan due to alleged election violence, regardless of the recount results.

• Nov. 9, 2020—Marcos files a 21-page manifestation asking the Supreme Court to disqualify Associate Justice Marvic Leonen as justice in charge of his poll protest, accusing Leonen of being “completely biased, completely partisan.”

• Nov. 17, 2020—The PET unanimously denies the motions to inhibit filed against Leonen by Solicitor General Jose Calida. It questions Calida’s legal standing in a private case that does not involve the state, his principal client.

• Nov. 23, 2020—Robredo asks the PET to put to rest Marcos’ protest for his continued failure to prove allegations of electoral fraud.

—INQUIRER RESEARCH

Source: Inquirer Archives