De Lima hits Marcos camp for repeatedly pointing out undervotes
Senatorial candidate Leila de Lima INQUIRER PHOTO
Senator-elect Leila De Lima, who is serving as canvassing counsel for leading vice presidential candidate Leni Robredo, on Thursday hit the camp of Sen. Bongbong Marcos for repeatedly pointing out the number of undervotes in the vice presidential race.
De Lima, a former justice secretary, made this manifestation after Marcos’ lawyers Didagen Dilangalen and George Garcia kept on pointing out the undervotes in the vice presidential race during the second day of the canvassing of votes at the House of Representatives.
“I don’t think it’s an accurate word to use because it presupposes that they were votes not unaccounted. That seems malicious to me,” De Lima said.
Marcos’ camp noted the “unusually high” number of undervotes, claiming that according to their quick count there were 3.3 million undervotes in the vice presidential race alone.
Marcos had said that millions of undervotes in a “hotly contested” vice presidential race is a cause for concern.
Robredo’s lawyer, Atty. Romulo Macalintal, added that there was nothing unusual in undervotes when voters opt to leave blank their choices for vice president even though he or she has voted for a president.
READ: Macalintal: Nothing irregular with undervotes in VP fight
As of Wednesday night, Robredo led the official count on the first day of the canvassing, garnering 3,576,643 votes, ahead by 295,492 votes over Marcos, who got 3,281,151. This was according to 45 certificates of canvass or CoCs tabulated (covering 10,208,514 votes) of the total 165 CoCs.
READ:Robredo leads VP race on day 1 of Congress canvassing
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