They just won’t back down without a fight.
The camp of losing vice presidential candidate and Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. slightly interrupted the otherwise smooth proclamation of President-elect Rodrigo Duterte and Vice President-elect Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo on Monday.
In a blistering speech directed against the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and election technology provider Smartmatic, Marcos’ campaign adviser and Abakada party-list Representative Jonathan dela Cruz urged the public to join them in their search for truth as they continue to allege that the outgoing senator has fallen victim of poll fraud.
READ: Marcos camp gathering evidence
He asked why the Comelec failed to scrutinize allegations of vote buying and the alleged use of the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program to force beneficiaries to vote for administration candidates.
Dela Cruz also asked Congress to blacklist Smartmatic, saying that it is “vulnerable to external interference.” He insinuated that “Smartmagic” had a hand in effecting poll irregularities.
While he raised these concerns, Dela Cruz said that the Marcos camp offers its congratulations to Robredo and Duterte.
READ: Duterte, Robredo proclaimed new President, VP; Rody a no-show
“We accept the finality of the count. For the sake of our country, we offer our congratulations and godspeed,” he said.
He said that while their camp may not have the answers to their questions now, they won’t stop in their “search for truth.”
READ: Marcos camp ‘respects’ process, but preparing for next move
Marcos lost to Robredo by a slim margin of 263,473 votes.
Robredo attended the proclamation ceremony with daughters Aika, Tricia and Jillian while Duterte was represented by his lawyers.
Another event that interrupted the proclamation of the winning candidates was a parliamentary inquiry made by Northern Samar Representative Harlin Abayon who asked why he was not in the roll call.
Abayon asked who should be the rightful representative of Northern Samar in the joint canvassing committee report. The Supreme Court has ruled that Abayon should be the representative of Northern Samar after it junked the petitions filed by former deputy speaker Raul Daza at the House Electoral Tribunal.
House Majority Floor Leader Neptali Gonzales III said that Abayon’s issue should not be tackled by the joint session but rather by the House of Representatives on its own. JE/rga