Nation must move on after VP protest case decided by PET

THE Marcos-Robredo election protest case was finally decid­ed last Tuesday, February 16. It has taken four years and eight months for the Presidential Elec­toral Tribunal (PET), consisting of all members of the Supreme Court, to decide the case which was filed on June 29, 2016, but it is the only big protest one to reach the point of a final decision.

A previous protest case filed by Manuel Roxas against Jejomar Binay in the vice-presidential election of 2010 was never actu­ally decided when both decided to run for president in 2016. The PET decided that the pending case was no longer relevant and thus decided to dismiss the Roxas protest as well as Binay’s counter-protest.

Ferdinand Marcos Jr. stuck to his case to the very end. Twenty-nine days after Leni Robredo was proclaimed winner on June 29, 2016, with a narrow margin of 263,473 votes, he filed his pro­test case, claiming fraud and irregularities. The PET found the complaint sufficient in form and substance on January 24, 2017, and Marcos asked for vote recount in Camarines Sur, Iloilo, and Negros Oriental, on June 16, 2017.

The PET began a manual re­count on April 2, 2018. Eighteen months later, on October 18, 2019, the recount was completed. The PET found that Robredo had even increased her lead over Marcos to 278,566. She asked that the protest be dismissed under the PET’s Rule 65, which provides that if the initial recount shows no substantial recovery of votes for the protesting candidate, the PET may dismiss a protest case.

Marcos, however, filed a new petition asking for the annulment of election results in Maguindan­ao, Lanao del Sur, and Basilan, due to alleged terrorism, intimidation, and harassment of voters. The Marcos group said the protest case is not over as the PET still has to decide on this last petition.

The PET, however, issued a statement at 5 p.m. that it had dismissed the Marcos election protest “for lack of merit” and that the counter-election protest filed by Robredo “is likewise dismissed.”

Vice President Robredo wel­comed the PET decision, urging everyone to set aside all rancor, join hands, and focus on the work ahead. The decision was commended by other officials as well as civic groups who said it confirms the nation’s electoral process and strengthens the unity of the country, so important espe­cially at his time when the country is struggling to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The nation will be holding an­other election in May, 2002, this one to determine who will suc­ceed President Duterte at the end of his six-year term. It would be better for all concerned to focus their efforts on the coming contest, rather than carrying on with the old protest case that the PET has, very decisively, declared over and done with.