PET prepares for revision of votes in Marcos poll protest
This is where the revision of ballots will be conducted by the Presidential Electoral Tribunal at the SC-CA building on Padre Faura in Manila. INQUIRER.net / Tetch Torres-Tupas
The Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) is all set for the revision of votes in the electoral protest filed by former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos against Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo.
On Tuesday, an ocular inspection was conducted to show the venue where the revision of ballots will be conducted.
Led by PET Clerk of Court and Supreme Court en banc Clerk of Court Atty. Edgar Aricheta showed members of the media the venue of the revision of ballots, which will be at the 5th floor of the SC-CA Building in Padre Faura, Manila.
According to Atty. Jose Lemuel Arenas, member of the Adhoc PET explained that the revision is the process of verifying the physical count of the ballots; to recount the votes of the parties and to record the objections or claims of the parties; to mark the ballots objected to or claimed by the parties.
There will be a total of 50 revision committees (RCs) composed of the head revisor, protestant’s revisor and the protestee’s revisor. The RCs are tasked to conduct a physical count of the ballots per ballot box and conduct an inventory of its contents. It will also record objections/claims and mark ballots accordingly.
On Monday, when the revision begins, there will only be 40 RCs as the PET is still in the process of evaluating potential members of the 10 remaining RCs.
During the revision of ballots, the revisors are prohibited from bringing in their personal belongings including mobile phones inside the venue. A locker has been provided by PET where they can keep their things.
Recount will start at 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. with 15 minute breaks and a one-hour lunch break. It will run from Monday to Friday.
Arenas said the time limit per ballot box with less than 300 votes will be 5.5 hours while for ballot boxes with 300 to 700 votes, the time limit will be 8.25 hours and for more than 700 votes, time limit is 11 hours.
The vote recount covered the three pilot provinces of Camarines Sur, Iloilo and Negros Oriental which were chosen by Marcos as the best provinces where he said he could prove the irregularities he cited in his poll protest.
Arenas said there are 5,418 clustered precincts covering the three pilot provinces. He added that PET already have 1,400 ballot boxes from Camarines Sur alone.
He said the other ballot boxes are currently with the Commission on Elections (Comelec) due to storage issues.
Arenas added that once the revisors have finished with the 1,400 ballot boxes, the PET will receive the remaining ballot boxes.
On the other hand, Atty. Ma. Carina Cunanan, another member of the PET Ad-Hoc Committee, said the tribunal is expecting some 213 personnel to come in daily during the recount. These include 60 employees of the tribunal, psychometricians, lawyers and representatives of both parties, and the revisors.
Members of the Philippine National Police, Philippine Coast Guard, Police Security Protection Group and PET guards will secure the venue round-the-clock.
CCTVs were also installed surrounding the recount venue and the storage area.
Cunanan said that the tribunal is expecting to augment 101 security personnel this coming week with more members of the PNP.
She added that the parties will not be allowed to bring in their security.
The PET said that they cannot still determine when the recount will be finished.
Recount will begin on April 2.
The recount was initially scheduled in February but was later reset to March 19.
Votes from about 132, 446 precincts are expected to be recounted because of Marcos’case, while the camp of Robredo pleaded to recount votes in her counter-protest from 31, 278 precincts.
Robredo came away as the winner of the vice presidential race with 14,418,817 votes or 263,473 more than Marcos who got 14,155,344 votes.
The revision of ballots will be conducted at the gymnasium, 5th floor of the SC-CA Building in Padre Faura, Manila. /jpv
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