Marcos to file electoral protest ‘to find out the truth’

Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. INQUIRER PHOTO/LYN RILLON

(Updated) Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. on Saturday confirmed that he would file an electoral protest after losing the vice presidential race in the May 9 elections.

Marcos said he would file the complaint before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal on June 28.

The senator did not disclose the content of his complaint, saying his legal counsels are still discussing on which ground the protest would be based.

“Ang problem talaga ng mga abogado ngyon ay (The problem of our lawyers is) which ground will the protest be based on,” he said, citing there were many possible grounds to be used.

“Ang pinag uusapan ngayon namin ay kung anong ground ang gagamitin (We are still discussing which ground to use),” he added.

READ: Marcos camp ‘respects’ process, but preparing for next move

The senator assured that this move would be made “to find out the truth.”

“Napaka-walang-hiya ang ginawang pambabastos at pambabalewala sa boses ng taong bayan (The way they insulted and ignored the choice of the people is so blatant),” he said.

“I will not allow this kind, there is no other word for it but cheating, to nullify the votes that you have made, the expressions of support that you have made,” he added.

He said his camp was collecting all the pieces of evidence to be attached to their electoral complaint.

“We are collecting all the affidavit and all the evidence to put or attach to our electoral complaint and in this way, we will be able to show exactly what happened during the last election,” he said.

The outgoing senator said the problem was with the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and the Smartmatic.

“We see that the problems were with Comelec and Smartmatic. So now, who was behind all of that? I think that we will slowly be able to show that,” he said.

He said the administration could be behind this alleged cheating.

“Because the only people who can institutionalize this kind of cheating is the administration. Sila lang naman ang kayang gumawa niyan, ang administration (Only the administration is capable of such thing),” he said.

He said they were looking into the high number of undervotes in the vice presidential race compared to the presidential derby.

“Maraming mga lugar ang zero lahat ng kandidiato para sa bise presidente pwera ang Liberal (There were several places where all the vice presidential candidates got zero votes except for the Liberal bet),” he said, adding that getting a zero vote is impossible especially he was endorsed by the Iglesia ni Cristo.

READ: Marcos told: Seek reelection after 3 years instead of filing poll protest

Marcos also alleged the use of a “fourth server” to transmit election results.

“We could not possibly imagine that this would be done. Napaka-garapal. Napakwalang-hiya at binalewala ang boses ng tao (It’s so brazen, so shameless, the way they ignored the voice of the people),” he said.

Marcos lost to Vice President-elect Leni Robredo by over 200,000 votes. Incidentally, Robredo, along with President-elect Rodrigo Duterte will be sworn into office on June 30, two days after the filing of the protest. IDL

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