Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo told the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) yesterday that the issues raised by former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. against her do not constitute an election protest.
Thus, Robredo asked the PET, composed of all the justices of the Supreme Court (SC), to dismiss the protest outright.
In her answer contained in 536 pages, Robredo said the protest consisting of “three parts” are not proper grounds for an election protest.
She said the “first part” is just a complaint by Marcos against the action of the Comelec in the lease of the vote counting machines (VCMs) from Smartmatic which was claimed to have no record of prior use in other elections in other countries.
“Surely, this could not be a ground to contest the election of Robredo since an election protest is a contest between two (2) candidates and not a case involving the problem between Comelec and Smartmatic,” Robredo said.
She said the “second part” of the protest is “a mere series of wild accusations, guesses, and surmises.”
(Rey Panaligan)
