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PET gets results in VP recount pilot areas

By Benjamin Pulta

September 10, 2019, 4:27 pm

<p>SC spokesperson Brian Keith Hosaka. <em>(File photo)</em></p>

SC spokesperson Brian Keith Hosaka. (File photo)

 

MANILA -- The result of the preliminary revision of ballots in three pilot provinces covering the election protest filed by former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos against Vice President Leni Robredo is now with the Supreme Court (SC), which is sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET).

In a press briefing Tuesday, Court spokesperson Brian Keith Hosaka said the SC cautioned the contending parties to refrain from making public comments on the case.

"The Presidential Electoral Tribunal has concluded and finished the recount and revision of ballots in the three test provinces of Iloilo, Negros Oriental, and Camarines Sur involving 5,415 election precincts. As a result, the member-in-charge of the case, (Associate Justice) Alfredo Benjamin S. Caguioa, submitted yesterday, September 9, 2019, a report to the Tribunal on the results of the said revision of ballots. However, the tribunal has not taken any action yet on the said report of Justice Caguioa," Hosaka said.

"The Tribunal would like to again remind the parties that they are still subject to the subjudice rule pursuant to its resolution dated February 13, 2018 and March 20, 2018," he added.

The report prepared by Caguiao has been submitted for deliberation by the PET, Hosaka said.

After the PET finishes its recount in the pilot provinces, it will decide whether to proceed with the vote revision on 39,221 clustered precincts covering 27 provinces and cities, which were identified in the election protest filed by Marcos.

Marcos’ protest cites the following causes of action:
– the Automated Elections System (AES) was compromised and that therefore integrity of the AES cannot be relied on to declare a legitimate winner.
-the revision or manual recount of the actual ballots to determine the votes cast in all the 36,465 protested clustered precincts.
-the annulment of election results for the VP position in the provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur and Basilan, on the ground of terrorism, intimidation and harassment of voters, as well as pre-shading of ballots in all of the 2,756, protested clustered precincts in the areas.

The PET has dismissed Marcos’ first cause of action for being “meaningless and pointless.

“The Court held that even if Marcos succeeds in proving his first cause of action, it does not mean that he can claim victory for the VP post because it can only be determined by a manual recount of all votes in all precincts,” the PET ruled.

Marcos filed an election protest on June 29, 2016, claiming that Robredo’s camp cheated in the automated polls in May of the same year.

Robredo filed her answer in August last year and also filed a counter-protest and questioned the results in over 30,000 polling precincts in several provinces where Marcos won. (PNA)

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