The spokesperson of Bongbong Marcos seeks a clarification whether the Supreme Court (SC), sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) dismissed the former senator’s electoral protest or only a portion of it.
According to Marcos’ spokesperson Vic Rodriguez, they are still waiting for the official copy of the SC’s decision, although the tribunal had already announced that the ruling was unanimous in favor of junking the “entire electoral protest” for lack of merit.
“We want to find out through that hard copy of the decision whether the term ‘election protest’ has been used strictly to refer specifically to manual recount or in its generic, general or loose term to include even our third cause of action because if they did include our third cause of action, more questions will arise,” Rodriguez said.
“Why? Ni hindi nila nahipo, nasilayan, naamoy, napag-aralan yung aming third cause of action. That is where our interest lies. Paano ninyo dinesisyunan yung aming third cause of action? Iyon ang gusto naming malaman.”
Part of Bongbong Marcos’ protest was was a recount, revision, and re-appreciation of ballots from Camarines Sur, Iloilo, and Negros Oriental. However, Robredo’s lead widened by some 15,000 votes after the recount.
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“It has been established during the numerous hearings and decision and deliberation of the court [that] the third cause of action is separate, distinct and can proceed independently from the manual recount and judicial revision,” Rodriguez said.
Meanwhile, Vice President Leni Robredo’s legal counsel Romulo Macalintal said the SC’s would be “very hard” to overturn.
“With due respect, para sa akin, game over na ito kasi unanimous iyan eh. Very, very hard to overturn a 15-member en banc voting unanimously to dismiss the case,” Macalintal told CNN-Philippines.
“I don’t know kung sino pang justice ang magre-review ng entire case kasi it would need another justice to review the entire case, voluminous documents in order to come up with a decision that would overturn the decision,” Robredo’s lawyer added.