By Rey G. Panaligan
Vice President Leni G. Robredo and former Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr. have been barred from discussing their election protests now pending with the Presidential Electoral Tribunal in public.
In a resolution made public yesterday, the PET – composed of all justices of the Supreme Court (SC) – said that “…considering that the revision process is about to commence, the Tribunal directs both protestant (Marcos) and protestee (Robredo) to observe the sub judice rule.”
Since the filing of Marcos’ protest and Robredo’s counter-protest, their camps have been conducting press conferences tackling the issues pending with the PET.
Now with the gag order, both camps are restricted from making comments or disclosures on the proceedings of their pending disputes lest they be slapped with contempt citation by PET.
The PET will start the recount and revision of ballots in three provinces identified by Marcos in his protest against Robredo on March 19.
Set for recount and revision are the contested ballots in Camarines Sur, Iloilo, and Negros Oriental which have been identified by Marcos as areas where he could best prove irregularities in the 2016 vice presidential election.
Based on election results, Robredo won the vice presidential race with 14,418,817 votes or 263,473 more than the 14,155,344 votes garnered by Marcos.