Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Chief Salvador Panelo (File photo)
MANILA – Former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. would have a hard time challenging the Presidential Electoral Tribunal’s (PET) decision to junk his poll protest against Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo, Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo said Wednesday.
During a commentary show “Counterpoint,” Panelo advised Marcos to just accept the PET’s unanimous dismissal of the electoral protest against Robredo.
“Since that is the final decision of the court, Presidential Electoral Tribunal, we have to respect it even if we are not in agreement. Ganiyan talaga (That’s how it goes),” Panelo said.
Panelo said it would be illogical for Marcos’ camp to file a motion for reconsideration (MR) since the PET, in a ruling penned by Associate Justice Marvic Leonen, was convinced that the former lawmaker’s allegations on election irregularities “appeared bare, laden with generic and repetitious allegations and lacked critical information”.
“Bigyan natin ng objective analysis. Ang problema, 15 ang naniwala naman dito kay Justice Leonen na tama ang desisyon. Iyan ang problema. Kaya medyo mahirap yatang mag-MR. (Let’s make an objective analysis. The problem is 15 magistrates believe that Justice Leonen made the right decision. That’s the problem. So it would be difficult to file an MR),” he said.
On June 29, 2016, Marcos filed an electoral protest before the PET to challenge Robredo’s win in the vice presidential derby held that year.
He claimed that Robredo defeated him in the 2016 vice presidential elections by some 263,473 votes due to supposed “massive cheating”.
The PET, in its 93-page decision released on Monday, said Marcos “failed to substantiate his allegations of massive anomalies and irregularities in protestee’s favor”.
“Instead, he (Marcos) chose to make sweeping allegations of wrongdoing and submitted incomplete and incorrect data. His abject failure to support his claims leaves this Tribunal with no other recourse but to dismiss his Protest,” the Supreme Court, sitting as the PET, said.
Marcos’ camp may file an MR to contest the ruling.
Panelo, however, told Marcos to just take his ongoing tiff with Robredo to the next level by joining the 2022 national elections.
“Siguro padaanan na lang natin sa halalan. Taumbayan naman palagi ang masusunod (Let’s see what will happen in the next elections. The voters will decide),” he said. “Kung tumakbo siyang bise presidente, tumakbo ka ring bise presidente para magkaresolve na ‘yung problema about who won (If she runs for vice president [next year], run for vice president as well to resolve the problem about who won).”
On Tuesday, Marcos said he will continue to fight despite the unanimous decision of PET to junk the vice presidential poll protest case.
He said the PET’s ruling set a “very bad precedent”.
Marcos added that the “true will of the electorate must prevail”. (PNA)
