The Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) has postponed the ballot recount for the vice presidential poll.
Lawyers from both Vice President Leni Robredo and former Senator Bongbong Marcos’ camp confirmed this to CNN Philippines Wednesday. The PET relayed the rescheduling to their camps Tuesday afternoon.
The manual ballot recount will proceed on April 2 instead of March 19, former Senator Bong Bong Marcos’ lawyer Vic Rodriguez said.
“Unfortunately for us, yes, postponed again,” Rodriguez said, adding the PET said said only 42 of the 50 revisors have qualified or passed psychological examinations for the recount.
The revisons are part of a committee that will examine contested ballots in Camarines Sur, Iloilo, and Negros Oriental to determine the merits of Marcos’ electoral protest.
Beng Sardillo, Robredo’s lawyer, said the PET cited logistics as the reason for the delay.
Sardillo said it trusts the PET as the recount would be in their best interests.
“We trust the PET in these proceedings as it is in our best interest to finish this protest to quash any doubt about the choice of the Filipino people and the victory of Vice President Leni Robredo,” she said.
Just last February the PET issued a gag order on the poll protest, ordering both camps to stop discussing it in public.
Marcos filed the electoral protest against Robredo in June 2016, after he lost to Robredo by 263,473 votes in the 2016 elections — among the narrowest margins in the history of the country’s vice presidential elections.
To bolster his claims, Marcos recently revealed in January evidence of supposed poll fraud, pointing to square boxes found in some ballot images. Robredo, however, has denied allegations of vote padding and shaving.
source: CNN Philippines
