SC orders Robredo, Marcos to comment on report

October 15, 2019

The Supreme Court, sitting as Presidential Electoral Tribunal, on Tuesday did not decide the election protest filed by former Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. challenging the proclamation of Vice President Ma. Leonor Robredo in the 2016 polls.

The tribunal ordered the release of the report on the recount of ballot in Iloilo, Camarines Sur, and Negros Oriental -- to Marcos and Robredo and told them to file their respective comment.

Both camps must submit their memorandum in 20 days on Marcos’s motion to nullify the results in Lanao del Sur, Basilan, and Maguindanao.

The SC did not disclose the voting, but Senior Justice Antonio  Carpio and Associate Justice Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa dissented.

Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin, who is retiring on October 18, and Carpio, who is stepping down on October 26, can not participate in the resolution of the Marcos election protest.

The SC will go on a decision-writing period from October 18 to November 3 and will resume sessions on November 4.

In a press conference, Supreme Court spokesman Brian Keith Hosaka said  what would be released to the Marcos and Robredo camps is the recount, revision, and appreciation of ballots in the three provinces, and not the report and recommendation made by Caguioa.

The manual recount and revision of ballot in 1,400 boxes from 5,418 clustered precincts in the three provinces was finished by the PET last year.

Marcos questioned the results in 132,446 precincts in 27 provinces and cities. 

Robredo also filed a counter-protest against Marcos involving 31,278 precincts. The two cases had been consolidated by the PET.

In the 2016 election, Robredo was declared winner in the vice presidential race with 14,418,817 votes or 263,473 more than the 14,155,344 votes garnered by Marcos. DMS