MALACAÑANG welcomed on Monday, April 2, the move of the Supreme Court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), to start the recount of votes in the 2016 vice presidential elections.
Speaking to Palace reporters, Senior Deputy Executive Secretary Menardo Guevarra said the ballot recount would put an end to the "long-festering dispute" between Vice President Leni Robredo, and losing vice presidential candidate, former senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.
"Other than that, this is a judicial matter, this is before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal already. So we leave it to the co-equal branch to handle that," he added.
Marcos, son of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, filed on June 29, 2017 an electoral protest before the PET, accusing Robredo of rigging the results of the May 9, 2016 vice presidential elections to secure the second highest position in the land.
Robredo was declared winner in the vice presidential race with 14,418,817 votes. She is ahead of her closest rival, Marcos, by 263,473 votes.
Nearly 10 months since Marcos filed the petition, the PET agreed to start its manual recount of ballot boxes from Camarines Sur, Iloilo, and Negros Oriental. (SunStar Philippines)