Former
senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos scored a minor victory on his electoral
protest against vice president Leni Robredo when the Supreme Court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal
(PET), has ordered the constitution of a panel of three hearing commissioners
under its control and supervision "to aid the tribunal in the just and
expeditious disposition" of former Sen. Bongbong Marcos' poll protest and
Vice President Leni Robredo's counter-protest.
The creation of 3-man panel is a response to the
Marcos’ please to expedite the processing of his poll protest.
In his plea, Marcos also listed important witnesses to
testify when called by the tribunal.
The Marcos camp listed a total of 362
witnesses in the preliminary conference brief who may be called upon to testify
and submit supporting evidence. Some of them include Commission on Elections
(COMELEC) officials led by Commissioner Christian Robert Lim, Directors Jose
Tolentino, Esther Roxas, J. Thaddeus Fernan, Teopisto Elnas and Ferdinand De
Leon; Smartmatic executives Marlon Garcia and Elie Moreno, election officers in
the thirty three contested provinces and cities as well as election and
Information Technology experts.
The preliminary conference brief has been rescheduled by the PET
on July 11, from the original date of June 22.
In
his 81-page preliminary conference brief, the Marcos camp identified Camarines
Sur, Iloilo and Negros Oriental for the recount or revision because they will
clearly show that there are major discrepancies in the votes cast in the
ballots and those transmitted by the Vote Counting Machines (VCMs) and reported
in the Certificates of Canvass (COCs).
“We
are contesting 36,000 clustered precincts comprising of 30 provinces but we are
looking at the numbers and we have seen that these provinces are very
significant,” Atty. Vic Rodriguez, spokesperson for the former senator said.
Rodriguez
explained that of the six vice presidential candidates, five traces their roots
in Bicol.
“But
if you will check the numbers, Senator Francis Escudero only received less than
40,000 votes considering that he ran for public office several times,” he said,
adding that Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano, whose wife is from
Albay got 14,601 votes. Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, who traces his roots to
Albay got 11,334 votes while Senator Gregorio Honasan, whose mother is from
Sorsogon garnered only 7,005 votes.
He
also noted that there are almost 65,000 undervotes in Camarines Sur. The three
provinces, he said, have a total of 300,000 undervotes. Undervotes are ballots
not counted either because the voter did not vote for a certain position or
there were unclear markings in the ballot.
“Again
what is the significance or relevance of those undervotes. Parang may 7th
candidate for vice president na tinago nila sa pangalan na undervotes sapagkat
hindi nanalo yun five pang kandidato sa undervotes,” Rodriguez said.
With
respect to Iloilo, Rodriguez pointed out that it is extremely implausible that
Robredo obtained 573,729 votes as against Marcos’ 94,411 votes when his running
mate, the late Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago, was from the said province and
they were warmly received by the Hiligaynons during their sorties there.
Negros
Oriental, on the other hand, was chosen because Robredo’s supposed 248,102
votes as against Marcos’ 99,208 votes appeared to be dubious considering the
fact that Marcos was supported by the biggest political families in the
province.
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Smartmatic, COMELEC officials to testify for Marcos
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