(Eagle News) — Vice President Leni Robredo has asked the Presidential Electoral Tribunal to dismiss former Senator Bongbong Marcos’ electoral protest for what she said was his failure to “show substantial recovery” of votes in the pilot provinces of Camarines Sur, Negros Oriental and Iloilo during the manual recount.
In her memorandum submitted to the PET, Robredo, through her lawyers, said the dismissal would be pursuant to Rule 65 of the 2010 PET Rules, after the PET found her lead had actually increased from 263,473 to 278,566 in the manual recount covering those three provinces.
“Indeed, with such uncontested findings, this honorable tribunal will be treating this protest as a special case if it is not dismissed under Rule 65. All existing jurisprudence and rules of tribunals hearing election cases strictly follow and comply with the pilot precincts rule, such that if an election protest fails to pass the initial determination of its merits after a recount of its pilot precincts, then the ultimate end is the immediate dismissal of the protest at that stage of the proceedings,” she said.
Nonetheless, Robredo said that if the electoral protest will proceed, she asked the PET to direct Marcos to present evidence to justify resort to a technical examination of the election day computerized voters’ list vis a vis the voters’ registration records under his third cause of action.
Marcos’ third cause of action seeks the nullification of votes in Lanao del Sur, Basilan and Maguindanao due to supposed widescale cheating. With Moira Encina
