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BY ADRIAN STEWART CO
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Sunday, June 18, 2017
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MANILA – Leni Robredo’s victory in the 2016 election was the “only truth” among issues being raised by Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., the vice president’s camp said yesterday.
Robredo was “validly voted upon and proclaimed as vice president of this country,” and Marcos’ petitions were just “general allegations” and “manufactured evidence,” according to lawyer Romulo Macalintal.
“Marcos was relying on evidence and allegations designed to sway the results in his favor,” Macalintal said in a statement. “Marcos was throwing everything on the wall, hoping that something sticks.”
In an 81-page preliminary conference brief filed before the Supreme Court sitting as Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), Marcos sought a pilot manual recount of ballots in Iloilo, Negros Oriental and Camarines Sur provinces.
Marcos lost the vice presidential race to Robredo by 263,473 votes in the final and official tally of the Commission on Elections. He got a total of 14,155,344 votes while Robredo got a total of 14,418,817.
Marcos’ lawyer Vic Rodriguez claimed it was extremely implausible for Robredo to obtain 573,729 votes in Iloilo as against Marcos’ 94,411 votes.
Rodriguez said Negros Oriental was also chosen because Robredo’s supposed 248,102 votes as against Marcos’ 99,208 votes were dubious, considering the fact that Marcos was supported by the biggest political families in that province.
The namesake of the former Philippine dictator “must come before the Honorable Tribunal certain, at the outset, of his cause and able to prove it, and certainly without resorting to false testimonies,” Macalintal said.
He also noted that Marcos claimed in his protest that the 2016 Automated Election System was noncompliant with Republic Act 8436, as amended, a defect that rendered the whole automated election system null and void.
“Yet in doing so Marcos limits his questions to one position — the vice presidency,” Macalintal said. “It is clear, however, that his claim effectively attacks not only protestee Robredo’s canvassed votes but also his own.”
In his election protest, the former senator questioned the election results in 39,221 clustered precincts in some 25 provinces and five cities across the country involving around 9 million votes.
Marcos sought to nullify a million votes cast in Lanao del Sur, Basilan and Maguindanao due to claims of massive cheating.
He cited alleged pre-shading of ballots, massive vote-buying, script change in the transparency server that supposedly altered the results, preloaded secure digital cards, misreading of ballots, malfunctioning vote counting machines, and an “abnormally high” unaccounted votes/under-votes for vice president./PN
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