PET throws out Marcos petition

The Supreme Court, acting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), has tossed out for being moot former Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s petition seeking an investigation of the presence of a staff member of his rival, Vice President Leni Robredo, at the swimming party of its personnel.

As correctly pointed out by Robredo’s lawyers, the electoral body handling Marcos’ election protest against her said it had already looked into the incident, which happened on June 22 in a private resort in Calamba City.

The PET released the resolution to the media on Friday.

Emil Maranon III, a member of Robredo’s legal team, said the PET’s ruling only proved that Marcos’ latest legal maneuver was nothing but a “PR stunt to confuse the public with lies.”

“This is precisely why we filed the countermanifestation. We knew that Marcos knew about what the revisers did,” Maranon said in a statement.

Both camps invited

The Vice President’s camp had earlier told the PET that the son and namesake of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos was lying when he questioned the propriety of the outing, saying his camp knew of the event since both camps were invited.

She said one of Marcos’ staff members, whom she identified as Roderick Miranda, even provided snacks for the swimming party. —MARLON RAMOS