PHILIPPINE Vice President Maria “Leni” Leonor Robredo has asked the Supreme Court (SC) to allow both her camp and that of former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. to witness the inventory and transport of ballot boxes in connection with their electoral case.
In a resolution dated December 5, 2017, the SC, sitting as Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), Robredo, through her lawyers Romulo Macalintal and Maria Bernadette Sardillo, filed a motion for clarification regarding the resolution issued by the tribunal.
But in a motion for clarification dated January 3, Robredo, through her lawyers Romulo Macalintal and Bernadette Sardillo, asked the court to allow both hers and Marcos’ representatives to witness the retrieval process of the documents.
Robredo’s camp pointed out that based on SC’s resolution, both parties “will not be able to verify the completeness of the ballot boxes and the correctness of the items being collected and retrieved.”
The transfer of ballot boxes, election documents and paraphernalia were scheduled from January 23 to 26.
Last month, Macalintal disclosed that the “revision” of the contested ballots in Camarines Sur is slated for the second week of February.
This will be followed by revisions in two other pilot provinces Iloilo and Negros Oriental—which were tagged by Marcos in his poll protest as the “best provinces” where he could prove the irregularities in the vice presidential race.
The revision stage is the third part of an electoral protest, in which the questioned ballot boxes will be opened and votes will be recounted and tallied.
In his poll protest, Marcos accused Robredo of benefiting from “massive electoral fraud, anomalies and irregularities” during the vice presidential election in 2016.
Marcos lost the vice presidential post to Robredo with only around 263,473 votes.
