PET urged to reconsider ruling vs contribution for Robredo

Supreme Court facade (File photo from the Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Supporters of Vice President Leni Robredo on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court sitting as Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) to reconsider its earlier decision dismissing their plea to accept their contribution for the payment of the balance for the Vice President’s counter-protest.

In a 13-page motion for reconsideration, the Piso Para Kay Leni led by Museo Pambata chair Cristina Lim-Yuson urged the PET to allow them to pay the rest of Robredo’s counter-protest fee.

Aside from Lim-Yuson, the other petitioners are former social welfare secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman, former human rights commissioner Paulynn Sicam, former Bases Conversion and Development Authority board director Zorayda Amelia Alonzo, award-winning singer Celeste Legaspi-Gallardo and Ateneo de Manila University Press director Karina Bolasco.

The petitioners, through their counsel Purification Bartolome-Bernabe, said there is a need for the PET to reverse its earlier ruling since what her clients have raised was a matter of “transcendental importance.”

“This is a necessary exercise of the right of suffrage considering that VP Leni will be deprived of her victory, we will be deprived of her victory because she is financially disadvantaged,” Bartolome-Bernabe said.

The petitioners said the PET decision denied them of their right to protect their vote for Robredo.

They also said they were able to establish that they have the legal standing or the ability to demonstrate to the court sufficient connection to and harm from the law or action challenged to support their participation in the case.

Likewise, they argued that considering the importance of the case, the Tribunal should also exercise sound discretion even if their motion for reconsideration of the earlier order should have been filed within a 10-day period from receipt of the order.

“The order denying the urgent motion for leave to file and admit petition for intervention was received on August 9. Section 69 of the PET Rules provides for a 10-day period within which a motion for reconsideration may be filed. In computing a period, the first day shall be excluded, and the last included. Following this rule, we count from August 10 and 10 days therefrom is August 19 but this date falls on a Saturday. In addition, the next working day is Monday, August 21, which is also a holiday,” the petition stated./ac