Election lawyer Romulo Macalintal. INQUIRER.net file photo
Former Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his counsels on Wednesday skipped a face-off with the lawyer of Vice President Leni Robredo, who had accepted the senator’s challenge for both camps to proceed directly to the manual counting of ballots to resolve their election dispute.
“Marcos reneged on his promise … He is scared to sign a joint motion,” Romulo Macalintal, Robredo’s lawyer, said in a news briefing.
Marcos, who had accused Robredo of cheating in the 2016 elections, dared the Vice President last week to join him in asking the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) to immediately start the recount of votes by filing a joint motion.
Photographs
On Tuesday, the son of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos made public photographs of him affixing his signature on a document addressed to the electoral tribunal.
“I’ve done everything possible to speed up this election protest. At this point, the only thing left is for Robredo to sign the document. We are waiting,” Marcos said in a Twitter post.
Joint manifestation
But Macalintal said that what Marcos signed was just a joint manifestation, not an actual petition, as he and his lawyers had previously mentioned.
“Even a new law graduate knows the difference between a motion and a manifestation,” he said. “A motion is a pleading where you ask (a particular) relief from the Supreme Court and for that relief or remedy to be granted.”
A manifestation “is usually made merely for the information of the court,” the lawyer said.
Macalintal then signed before members of the media a joint motion, with the name of Marcos’ lawyer, George Erwin Garcia, on it, asking the PET to grant their request to drop all their pending petitions.
“This is the correct motion … to withdraw any and all pending motions which may delay the recount proceedings,” he said.
Robredo’s lawyer also asked Marcos to stop using his election protest as an instrument “for (his) political ambition to top the 2019 senatorial elections.”
“(Marcos) wants to top the senatorial elections (because) if you’re a topnotcher in a senatorial election, you’re a potential candidate for the presidency in 2022,” Macalintal said.