BY JEFFREY DAMICOG
This time it was the turn of the camp of Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo to be on the offensive as it vowed to question before the Supreme Court (SC), sitting as Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), the participation of the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) in the election protest of former Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
“We will file the necessary pleading po to raise our objections regarding, number one, the participation of the solicitor general and, second po, the actual merit the solicitor general has filed,” said Emil Marnon, one of the legal counsels of Robredo, said during an interview on CNN Philippines.
On Monday, Solicitor General Jose Calida and Marcos separately filed a motion asking the PET to inhibit Associate Justice Marvic Leonen from handling the election protest the former lawmaker filed against Robredo.
“This is a very abnormal circumstances na hindi po dapat. It should be questioned,” Maranon pointed out.
The lawyer explained the election protest was “a private suit between the vice president and Bongbong Marcos.”
“There is no government agency involved here so bakit po siya nakikisawsaw sa kaso ni vice president natin po,” asked Maranon.
The lawyer explained that the OSG is “the tribune of the people” and shouldn’t be siding with someone who was not chosen by the people in the 2016 polls.
Maranon expressed belief that Marcos has been colluding with the OSG.
“What we can conclude on is on the basis of their filings. You simply have to check and read the documents that both camps have filed and you can see similarities in argument. Exactly the same. And even similarly worded po yung sentences,” he explained.
“We connect this as well with the prior actions of the solicitor general,” he added.
The lawyer reminded that the OSG should be representing the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in the election protest.
Maranon recounted that the PET previously tackled the question of the ballot shading threshold concerning the Marcos election protest.
“There was a threshold issue before where the solicitor general abandoned its client. The solicitor general abandoned its client, Comelec, to actually favor with Mr. Marcos which is very unusual and very abnormal,” the lawyer said.
Maranon said the Comelec’s stance was that there should be a 25 percent shading threshold, while, the OSG sided with Marcos that it should be at 50 percent. (Jeffrey Damicog)
