Vice President Leni Robredo. AP FILE PHOTO
The camp of Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo on Monday asked the Supreme Court sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) to clarify its order requiring her to pay P15.44-million as deposit for her counter-protest against former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
In a manifestation, Robredo through her lawyer Romulo Macalintal told PET that the rules do not require her to deposit the said amount yet.
He said that under Rules 65 of the 2010 Rules of the PET, Robredo should be asked to pay the cash deposit only after there is a necessity to retrieve and collect her counter-protested clustered precincts.
“Thus, without preempting the Honorable Tribunal, protestee Robredo asks that the payment of her cash deposit be deferred until such time that the recount and revision of all the 36,465 protested clustered precincts has terminated,” the manifestation stated.
He added that the motion for reconsideration on the PET’s resolution finding Marcos’ protest sufficient in form has yet to be resolved by PET.
Macalintal said any favorable action on their plea will have an effect on the total number of clustered precincts that would be the subject of the election protest.
“Should this motion be denied, protestee Robredo is willing to pay the cash deposit for her counter-protested clustered precincts,” he added.
It will be recalled that the PET directed Robredo and Marcos to shell out a total of P81.46 million for their separate election protests.
Of this amount, P66.02 million will be used for the retrieval of poll materials for the protest of Marcos, while P15.44 million will be used to retrieve election materials for Robredo’s petition./rga