FORMER senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. on Monday, November 9, 2020, asked the Supreme Court (SC) to inhibit Associate Justice Mario Victor “Marvic” Leonen from the election protest case against Vice President Maria Leonor Robredo.
Marcos also asked the SC to re-raffle the case and resolve all pending incidents in the case.
In a press conference after the filing of his motion, the former senator said it was clear that Leonen was employing delaying tactics when he asked the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) and the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to comment on the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court sitting as Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) over the election protest case.
“They (PET) have been hearing the case for four-and-a-half years. Why will they hear the case for four-and-a-half years if they don’t have jurisdiction? Kaya’t naging maliwanag sa akin na ang dahilan kung bakit hiningan n’ya ng comment ay para mag-delay ulit (It became clear to me that he sought comment just to delay the proceedings again),” Marcos said.
He said Leonen has prejudged the case and is “very clearly, hostile” to him and his family.
He said there have been several instances where Leonen expressed an opinion against him, his father and the entire Marcos family.
In his motion filed Monday morning, Marcos said Leonen “wlll not be a fair and impartial ponente” in the case because of his “scathing” pronouncements in a number of landmark cases, his previous employment history and the manner with which he handled the protest case.
Marcos said Leonen is biased against the entire Marcos family as indicated in his dissenting opinion in the case of the burial of the late president Ferdinand Marcos.
“In his dissent in the Marcos burial cases, Associate Justice Leonen candidly expressed how much he loathed the late President Ferdinand E. Marcos and the latter’s family and friends,” Marcos stated.
He cited Leonen’s opinion that the late president had presided over a regime that “caused untold sufferings for millions of Filipinos” and had stood by as his family, associates and cronies “engaged in systematic plunder.”
Leonen further stated, “Marcos is no hero. He was not even an exemplary public officer. He is not worth of emulation and inspiration...He is certainly not worthy of emulation and inspiration by those in public service.”
Marcos also clarified that he has never sought the declaration of failure of elections in three provinces in Mindanao.
“We have never had a petition for failure of election. We only filed a protest that’s why it went to the PET,” he said.
The reported dismissal of petitions for failure of elections stemmed from petitions filed locally, he added. These have also become moot and academic because elections have been held already.
Marcos filed an electoral protest before the PET on June 29, 2016, claiming there was massive cheating and seeking the annulment of votes cast in Lanao del Sur, Basilan and Maguindanao.
Marcos lost to Robredo in the 2016 vice presidential elections by 263,473 votes. (Marites Villamor-Ilano/SunStar Philippines)