SC nixes Robredo supporters’ bid to pay her poll counter-protest fees

Vice President Leni Robredo INQUIRER.net

Vice President Leni Robredo’s supporters have failed to convince the Supreme Court (SC) to accept their monetary contributions for Robredo’s counter-protest fee in the electoral protest filed by former Sen. Bongbong Marcos.

According to backers of the “Piso Para Kay Leni” initiative, the SC, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), denied with finality their motion for reconsideration to allow them to pay Robredo’s balance.

READ: Robredo to pay P8 million fee for counter protest

Monetary contributions pooled by more than 25,000 Robredo supporters have reached P7,520,679.04, according to the group. The amount was supposed to help Robredo pay her required deposit of P7,439,000 in her counter-protest fee.

Museo Pambata founder Cristina Lim-Yuson, one of the movement’s founders, said the funds will instead be turned over to Robredo’s anti-poverty program “Angat Buhay.”

Lim-Yuson said they already met with Robredo at her office last Dec. 13, Wednesday, to discuss how the funds will be turned over.

“The money given by thousands of VP Leni supporters will now promote the welfare of our poor countrymen as this was the alternative plan from the onset in the event that our petition would not be granted by PET,” said Lim-Yuson in a statement on Thursday.

Aside from Lim-Yuson, the other members of the movement include former human rights commissioner Paulynn Sicam, former PAG-IBIG Fund CEO Zorayda Amelia Alonzo, award-winning singer Celeste Legaspi-Gallardo, Ateneo de Manila University Press director Karina Bolasco, and former social welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman.

Robredo’s spokeswoman Georgina Hernandez, Angat Buhay project head, welcomed the group’s donations.

“It will go a long way in helping poor communities as part of VP Leni’s advocacy to uplift the lives of Filipinos living in the fringes of society,” Hernandez said. /jpv