(Eagle News) — Former Senator Bongbong Marcos has asked the Presidential Electoral Tribunal to “reconsider, review and re-examine the preliminary appreciation” of the 2016 votes for vice president in the provinces of Camarines Sur, Iloilo and Negros Oriental.
Marcos, through his lawyers, made the appeal after a PET report on the manual recount said that Vice President Leni Robredo had in fact increased her lead over Marcos after the revision and appreciation borne out of Marcos’ electoral protest.
“Based on the final tally after revision and appreciation of the votes in the pilot provinces, protestee Robredo maintained, as in fact she increased, her lead with 14,436,337 votes over protestant Marcos who obtained 14,157,771 votes,” the PET had said in its report released in October 2019.
In his memorandum, Marcos also asked the PET to “uphold and affirm” its “competence” to resolve his third cause of action, which seeks the nullification of votes in Lanao del Sur, Basilan, and Maguindanao due to supposed widescale cheating.
He also asked the PET to “immediately proceed” with the third cause of action “notwithstanding the pendency of the resolution” on the second cause of action, which involves the recount of votes in the three provinces.
For this, he asked the PET to direct the Commission on Elections handwriting experts to conduct the technical examination of the voters’ signatures appearing on the Election Day Computerized Voters’ List as against the voters’ signatures appearing on the Voters Registration Records in each of the 2756 clustered precincts of Lanao del Sur, Basilan and Maguindanao included in the protest.
He also asked the PET to conduct another preliminary conference for the third cause of action and to proceed with the presentation of evidence.
Robredo was declared the winner of the 2016 vice presidential elections, but Marcos, who filed his electoral protest after the polls, has alleged irregularities. With Moira Encina
