Take our money, Robredo backers ask PET

Supporters of Vice President Leni Robredo on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), anew to accept the funds they raised to defray the remaining P7.4 million in cash bond for her counterprotest against former Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

In a press briefing, the group, led by former Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman and Museo Pambata founder Maria Cristina Lim-Yuson, said their efforts to foot the bill for Robredo’s petition was intended to safeguard the integrity of the elections and the rights of the voters.

Marcos, who lost to Robredo by more than 200,000 votes, had already settled the P66.2 million in total cash deposit for his protest covering 132,446 polling precincts.

Robredo paid only P8 million of the required fee of P15.4 million for her counterprotest covering 31,278 precincts.

“We believe that (Robredo) is our duly elected Vice President,” Yuson told reporters.

“We voted for her and we will protect our victory,” she added.

The group, which called itself the “Formidable Six,” had previously filed a petition seeking the PET’s permission to intervene in the electoral protest filed by Marcos.

The electoral body rejected the group’s petition on July 11, prompting them to file a motion for reconsideration.

According to Soliman, more than 25,000 people sent their donations in various amounts, in response to their group’s “Piso para kay Leni” campaign, which was initiated by Yuson, Soliman, singer Celeste Legaspi, Paulynn Sicam, Zorayda Amelia Yuson and Karina Bolasco.

Yuson said the group had already received about P6.85 million in cash donations in the two months after they launched the campaign.

“We’re not only six who are standing up,” said Soliman.

“We’re joined by more than 25,000 ordinary people.

“The people are donating whatever they could because we see (Robredo) as the rightful Vice President,” she added.

In their 13-page motion for reconsideration, the petitioners argued that the rules promulgated by the PET “do not prohibit the payment of the filing of fees directly by the voters.”