Robredo: Poll protest a test of judicial system

Vice President Leni Robredo on Tuesday expressed hopes for a favorable ruling in the electoral protest filed against her by defeated candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr., in the 2016 elections.

“We have to trust the justice system,” Robredo told reporters at the sidelines of an event in Pasig City, prior to the announcement on Tuesday by the Supreme Court sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), which it was deferring its decision and resetting the voting to next week.

“[O]n my part, the decision will be based on data because there was a process,” the Vice President said. “So we do not see the possibility that it would be unfavorable [to us],” she added.

Robredo said the PET’s decision would also be a test of the country’s judiciary. “The issue here is bigger than both of us,” she said.

In his protest lodged in June 2016, Marcos claimed that Robredo’s victory was marred by fraud and irregularities. The former senator, who lost by some 260,000 votes, chose three pilot provinces for a recount, namely Iloilo, Negros Occidental and Camarines Sur, that supposedly reflected poll anomalies.

Robredo’s legal counsels earlier claimed that the recount had widened Robredo’s lead, but the PET in July denied her camp’s motion for the tribunal to immediately resolve the protest, claiming that the additional votes from the three provinces were “merely speculative.”