By Deighton Acuin

PHOTO: Canadian Inquirer

The Supreme Court’s dismissal of electoral protest against Vice President Leni Robredo only deals with second cause of action and not the entire petition, the camp of Former Senator Bongbong Marcos said Tuesday.

In a statement, Atty. Vic Rodriguez claimed that the high court — which also serving as Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) — has yet to junk their third cause of action in the petition.

SC earlier announced in connection with PET Case No. 005, the tribunal unanimously dismissed the electoral protest filed by Marcos against the Vice President.

“Based on the official pronouncement made by the Presidential Electoral Tribunal today, the court unanimously voted to dismiss our second cause of action, which is the manual recount and judicial revision,” Rodriguez said.

“However, as to the issue on how to proceed with our third cause of action, which is the annulment of votes in Mindanao, the Tribunal has yet to decide on the matter,” he added.

Marcos and Robredo squared off in 2016 national elections, where Marcos lost to Robredo with over 260,000 votes. The second cause of action filed in the protest involved a vote recount from three provinces — Iloilo, Negros Oriental, and Camarines Sur.

But PET announced in October 2019 that after the recount, Robredo’s lead even grew in the provinces chosen by Marcos for the recount.  This prompted Marcos’ camp to pursue a third cause of action to nullify votes from Lanao del Sur, Basilan, and Maguindanao provinces due to alleged discrepancies.

The protest spanned for four years, creating allegations to inhibit the ponente of the position and the high court’s Associate Justice Marvic Leonen.

The former senator claimed Leonen is biased against him and the Marcos family. However, SC junked his petition.

The poll protest also sparked a barrage of allegations thrown against Robredo for allegedly being a “fake” Vice President, even though the recount solidified her lead over Marcos.

However, several government officials, including lawmakers from the minority cluster, have stressed that the SC decision should set aside doubts that Robredo really won in the 2016 elections, even with a small margin.


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