Former Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Vice President Leni Robredo. FILE PHOTOS
The failure of Vice President Leni Robredo to pay P8 million in cash deposit should prompt the outright dismissal of her counterprotest, former Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. on Thursday told the Supreme Court, acting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET).
In a six-page omnibus motion, the son and namesake of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos also urged the PET to set the preliminary conference of his election protest against Robredo, who edged him out in the vice presidential race in the May 2016 polls by over 200,000 votes.
Robredo, represented by veteran election lawyer Romulo Macalintal, had asked the high court to allow her to settle the first tranche of the required cash bond for her own protest at a later time pending the determination of the merits of Marcos’ protest.
The election tribunal has directed Marcos to pay P66 million for the precincts covered by his protest while Robredo was required to post a P15 million cash bond for her counterprotest.
They were both ordered to settle the first installment of the cash deposit on April 14. Marcos made a payment of P36 million as first installment of his protest fee.
The former senator, President Duterte’s staunch ally, said the vice president’s action was only intended to further delay the resolution of his accusation that she had cheated him.
“In view of the failure on the part of (Robredo) to pay the first tranche of the cash deposit for her counterprotest within the deadline set by this honorable tribunal, protestant Marcos is now constrained to move for the immediate dismissal of the counterprotest,” Marcos said in his petition.
He said the dismissal of Robredo’s counterprotest was “warranted” as the PET had previously thrown out two election cases because of the failure of the petitioners to settle the required cash deposits on time.
“There being no issue as to the cash deposit required to be paid by (Robredo), there is clearly no basis for (her) to ask this honorable tribunal to hold in abeyance the payment of the cash deposit for her counterprotest,” said Marcos.