Tell it to SunStar: PET, Leni, Bongbong

ONE of the most sensational election protests in Philippine history is the protest lodged by Ferdinand Marcos Jr., son of the late dictator, against the duly-elected Vice President Leni Robredo.

For many observers, Marcos has filed a nuisance protest against the incumbent Vice President. The recount and revision of ballots as provided for under Rule 65 of the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) in the three pilot provinces picked by Marcos himself as the areas with the worst cheating, has yielded no substantial recovery of lost or stolen votes. On the contrary, the recount gave Robredo some 15,000 additional votes.

Had the PET applied its own rules without fear or favor, the Marcos protest should have been dismissed. Under PET Rule 65, if the protestant cannot prove during the recount and revision of ballots that there was cheating in the three pilot provinces (Negros Oriental, Iloilo and Camarines Sur), the protest should be dismissed. The PET, instead of dismissing the protest, ordered the contending camps last week to comment on the report of SC Justice Caguioa within 20 days.

The move of the PET raises some interesting questions. What is holding the majority members (Senior Justice Antonio Carpio and Justice Benjamin Caguioa dissented) from applying PET Rule 65 and thus dismiss the protest? The delay has caused mounting public anxiety and suspicion that there is something wrong somewhere. A recent PDI editorial said that the dilly-dallying is suspicious.

The Makati Business Club (MBC) recently expressed hope that the release of a report in the recount of votes in the 2016 vice presidential elections would lead to the junking of Marcos’s protest against Vice President Leni Robredo. The MBC hopes that the dismissal of the protest would reduce the political and judicial uncertainty that came with said protest and thereby create a wholesome business climate for the creation of jobs.

But Marcos, instead of heeding the public clamor for the dismissal of the protest, kept slugging it out with his non-sense. I almost fell off my chair when Bongbong said “I was robbed of three years of my term as vice-president.” What nonsense? The son of a robber, plunderer and a dictator was robbed by a reluctant candidate and without any record of thieving and skulduggery in public and private life?

Does Bongbong not realize that since President Duterte and Robredo were elected on the same ballots scanned by the same vote-counting machines, his petition for the nullification of the disputed votes will impact on the President’s election?

For his peace of mind, Bongbong must read Justice Benjamin Caguioa in his dissenting opinion: “Numbers do not hold any feelings or political leanings. Numbers do not lie. They state things simply as they are. And when the numbers reveal definite conclusion, the Tribunal would do a disservice to the public and to the nation not to heed the conclusion they provide.” (By Democrito C. Barcenas)

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