Robredo asked to answer Marcos protest

Vice President Leni Robredo and former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. INQUIRER FILE PHOTOS

The Supreme Court (SC) acting as Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) on Tuesday asked Vice President Ma. Leonor “Leni” Robredo to respond in ten days on the election protest filed by former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and asked the Commission Elections to preserve election returns (ERs) that are subject of protest.

SC spokesman Theodore Te said the high court’s resolution orders the issuance of summons to Robredo requiring her to comment within ten days.

READ: SC to order Robredo to respond to electoral protest of Marcos

“The Tribunal resolved to issue summons and grant the prayer of the protestant for a Precautionary Protection Order pursuant to Rules 36 of the 2010 Rules of the Presidential Electoral Tribunal,” said the high court’s resolution issued on Tuesday.

At the same time, the high court issued a Precautionary Protection Order (PPO) directed at the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to preserve and retrieve election returns in question for manual recount, judicial revision and technical examination.

The high court’s resolution was issued in time for Marcos’ filing of omnibus motion for issuance of precautionary order, summons and retrieval orders for his election protest.

Marcos’ counsel George Erwin Garcia argued in the motion that the proclamation of protestee Robredo as the duly elected vice president is null and void because the certificates of canvass (COCs) generated by are not authentic and may not be used as basis to determine the number of votes that the candidates for vice president received.

READ: Marcos alleges 4th server, to file poll protest vs Robredo win

The young Marcos also asked the high court to have all the ERs from 36,465 clustered precincts that functioned during the May 9 national and local elections to be subjected to manual recount, technical examination and judicial revision. RAM