MANILA (Updated 10:36 a.m.) -- Defeated vice presidential candidate Senator Mar Roxas filed Friday morning an electoral protest before the Supreme Court, claiming there were 2.6 million votes nullified in the hotly contested position in the May 10 polls.

Roxas, running mate of President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III, was defeated by Vice President Jejomar Binay by 727,084 votes.

Pacho Joaquin, legal counsel of Roxas, said in a television interview Friday that they are hoping all ballot boxes they claimed to have contained the null votes will be opened by the Supreme Court, sitting as Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET).

He said they are also asking the PET to correct some certificates of canvass.

Joaquin said there are three provinces where null votes are high. These include Regions 6 (Western Visayas), 7 (Central Visayas), and 8 (Eastern Visayas). He added they will determine which ballot box to open first.

He also said that under the new rules of the PET, the head revisor, the one that will decide on the interpretation of votes, will be the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machine.

The PCOS, he said, will be reconfigured to qualify as official votes the ovals that were 51 percent shaded.

Joaquin said even if the oval was marked by a check or an X, as long as 51 percent of it was covered, the vote will be considered valid.

He said Roxas will have to spend more with the filing of the protest, as opening a ballot box now costs P500 to P1,500. He said they hope they will not be asked to pay more for it. (Sunnex)