VICE President Maria Leonor "Leni" Robredo has asked the Supreme Court (SC) to dismiss the motion filed by former senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. seeking to throw out her counter-protest.
Marcos earlier asked the SC, acting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), to dismiss Robredo's counter-protest for her failure to raise the amount required of her on the deadline given by the court.
Robredo, in her motion dated May 5, said Marcos motion to junk her protest should be treated as a sham pleading.
Robredo pointed out that in recent decisions of the tribunal, it did not junk poll protest on the reason of non-payment, contrary to the ground raised by Marcos' camp.
"Marcos conveniently omitted to say that the dismissal of a protest or counter protest, as the case may be, due to the non-payment of cash deposit is discretionary and not mandatory," Robredo said.
"Rule 34 of the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, as invoked by protestant Marcos, provides that the tribunal may dismiss the protest or counter protest. The use of the word 'may' operates to the discretion of the Honorable Tribunal. Hence, the non-payment of the cash deposit does not result at all to the dismissal of the counter protest," it added.
The Vice President further said that with her compliance with the SC's order Marcos' motion must be rendered moot and academic.
Robredo paid the first tranche of her electoral protest fee amounting to P8 million with the SC last May 2 following the Court's dismissal of her motion to defer payment.
She is required to pay a total of P15.44 million.
Marcos, meanwhile is required to pay more than P66 million, also in two tranches. He paid the first cash deposit required by the PET amounting to P36 million on April 17. Deadline for second installment is July 14.
The cash deposits according to the tribunal will be used for the retrieval of contested ballots and election paraphernalia in 163,000 precincts in the county. (SunStar Philippines)