(Eagle News) — Former Senator Bongbong Marcos scored a legal victory after the Supreme Court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), ruled that it should be the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) that should shoulder the storage fees of election materials kept in overseas posts, and that have to do with his electoral protest against Vice President Leni Robredo.
In making the ruling in a 6-page resolution made public on Monday, the PET denied the poll body’s argument that the materials could only be stored abroad because they could not be shipped by the poll body based on the PET’s Precautionary Protective Order.
“There is nothing in the PPO that prohibited the physical transfer of the election materials and paraphernalia; the COMELEC was merely required to preserve and safeguard their integrity,” the PET said.
It added in previous instances, the PET already granted the poll body permission to move election materials despite the issuance of the PPO.
It said the COMELEC “could have simply secured permission from the Tribunal for their transfer to the COMELEC Central Office.”
“The COMELEC made no such request,” it said.