Vice President Leni Robredo. AP FILE PHOTO
The camp of Vice President Leni Robredo has asked the Supreme Court sitting as Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) to defer her payment of the remaining cash deposit of P7.4-million for her counter-protest against former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos.
Robredo’s deadline for the payment of the second installment of the cash deposit was supposed to be Friday, July 14, but during Tuesday’s (July 11) preliminary conference, PET has granted an extension of payment.
Robredo’s motion made public Friday urged PET to extend the deadline of payment until there is an initial determination that Marcos has made a “substantial recovery in his designated three pilot provinces—Camarines Sur, Iloilo and Negros Oriental.
Robredo, through her counsels led by Atty. Romulo Macalintal, maintained that Marcos’ protest should be dismissed if the pilot areas will fail to overturn Robredo’s victory. The collection and retrieval of the ballot boxes for Robredo’s counter-protest will only commence after Marcos has shown that he has managed to overcome the vice president’s winning margin of 263,473.
“Thus, in the interim and in the interest of justice, Robredo asks that she be allowed to pay the second installment of her cash deposit in the amount of P 7,439,000 after a determination has been made that protestant Marcos has made a substantial recovery from his three designated pilot provinces,” the motion stated.
Robredo clarified that the motion was not intended to delay the case but was simply a compliance with the PET’s order.
Last June, Robredo paid the initial installment of P8 million of the P15.44 million required by the PET for her counter-protest.
Under Section 33 (b) of the PET rules, a protestant is required to make a cash deposit to the tribunal the amount of P500 per contested precinct “if they require the bringing of the contested ballot boxes and election documents to the tribunal.”
Marcos filed an election protest against Robredo in June 2016, contesting 39,221 clustered precincts which were composed of 132,446 established precincts.
He said he decided to file the electoral protest due to the alleged frauds, anomalies and irregularities that marred the May 9 elections and that such activities made sure he would lose to Robredo, the vice presidential candidate of the administration’s Liberal Party.
Robredo has denied Marcos’ allegations, saying she has no history of cheating.