Vice President Leni Robredo paid yesterday the initial P8 million of the P15.43 million required by the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) for her counter-protest against former Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
The second payment of P7.43 million is to be turned over to the PET, composed of all the 15 justices of the SC, on or before July 14 as stated in the March 21 resolution of the tribunal.
Earlier, the PET had denied Robredo plea to defer the payment of the cash deposit for her counter-protest covering 31,278 precincts.
In a resolution, the tribunal required Robredo to deposit P8 million within five days from receipt of the notice.
Marcos had paid P36.023 million of the P66.223 million required for his protest covering 39,221 clustered precincts in 25 provinces and five cities in the country.
The PET had set for June 21 the preliminary conference jointly on the protest and counter-protest filed by Marcos and Robredo, respectively.
A preliminary conference, pleaded earlier by Marcos, would commence the formal proceedings in the election cases.
It would determine, among other things, stipulations or admissions of facts and documents to avoid unnecessary proof, the simplification of the issues, the limitation of the number of witnesses, the most expeditious manner for the retrieval of ballot boxes containing the ballots, election returns, certificates of canvass, and other election documents involved in the case.
The PET said the preliminary conference would be held “without prejudice to the Tribunal’s resolution of all remaining pending incidents.” (REY PANALIGAN)