BY REY PANALIGAN
In a unanimous vote of 15 justices, the Supreme Court (SC), sitting as Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), dismissed on Tuesday the election protest filed by former Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. against Vice President Ma. Leonor “Leni” Robredo.
Seven justices concurred fully in the decision while eight justices voted in the result – the dismissal of the petition.
The decision is expected to be released by the SC on Tuesday afternoon before it starts its third day of oral arguments on 37 petitions against the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 on Tuesday afternoon.
The election protest filed by Marcos against Robredo in 2016 has three causes of action – annulment of the proclamation of Robredo; recount and revision of ballots in 36,465 protested clustered precincts; and annulment of election results for Vice President in the provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur and Basilan on the ground of alleged terrorism; intimidation and harassment of voters as well as pre-shading of ballots in all of the 2,756 protested clustered precincts.
In his protest, Marcos named the provinces of Camarines Sur, Iloilo, and Negros Oriental as his pilot areas for the recount and revision of ballots.
In its Oct. 15, 2019 resolution issued after the recount and revision of ballots in the three pilot provinces, the PET said: “Thus, based on the final tally after revision and appreciation of the votes in the pilot provinces, protestee Robredo maintained, as in fact she increased her lead with 14,436,337 votes over protestant Marcos who obtained 14,157,771 votes.
After the revision and appreciation, the lead of protestee Robredo increased from 263,473 to 278,566.”
