Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr. yesterday filed with the Supreme Court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, his election protest against proclaimed Vice President Leni G. Robredo who is set to take her oath of office in Quezon City today.
In his petition, Marcos asked the PET to set aside Robredo’s proclamation and declare him as the duly elected vice president.
He challenged the election results in 39,221 clustered precincts in 25 provinces and five cities in the country.
Marcos included in his 1,000-page petition 20,000 pages of affidavits, Certificates of Canvass, and other supporting documents to support his claim of fraud in the last May 9 national and local elections.
“The votes presumptively obtained by protestee Robredo during the last elections are products of electoral frauds, anomalies, and irregularities. Meanwhile, the votes obtained by protestant Marcos were significantly reduced, manipulated, and altered to make it appear that he only placed second during the last elections,” the petition stated.
Marcos’ lawyer George Garcia explained that “through a series of electoral frauds, anomalies, and irregularities, people behind the whole operation made sure that Robredo would win and that Marcos’ votes would be reduced.”
After the filing, Marcos, in an interview with journalists covering the SC, said that his petition has three parts.
He said these are the “flawed” Automated Election System; the more “traditional” modes of cheating like vote buying, pre-shading, intimidation, and failure of elections; and the unauthorized introduction by Smartmatic’s Marlon Garcia of a new hash code (or a new script/program) into the Transparency Server as well as the effects brought about by the unauthorized change. (Rey G. Panaligan)