A motion for reconsideration (MR) has been filed before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) by lawyers representing Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos in the electoral protest contesting the results of the 2016 election for Vice President.

The 96-page MR dated May 6, 2021 and confirmed received by PET on Tuesday indicated Marcos, through counsels led by George Erwin Garcia, asked the court to reconsider and set aside its decision dated February 16.

Marcos’ counsels claimed the decision to no longer hear the remaining cause of action, involving alleged widespread fraud in the provinces of Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, and Basilan, deprived their client of his right to due process.

The court dismissed Marcos’ case against Vice President Leni Robredo after he failed to prove his claims and that his “allegations appeared bare, laden with generic and repetitious allegations and lacked critical information”.

“If, indeed, protestant was convinced of his claims in Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, and Basilan, then he should have indicated those three as his pilot provinces. But he did not, to no fault of this Tribunal,” the PET decision read.

The pilot province precincts cited are in Cebu province, Leyte, Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental, Masbate, Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga del Norte, Bukidnon, Iloilo province, Bohol, Quezon province, Batangas, Western Samar, Misamis Oriental, Camarines Sur, Northern Samar, Palawan, Albay, Zamboanga, Sibugay, Misamis Occidental, Pangasinan, Isabela, Iloilo City, Bacolod City, Cebu City, Lapu-Lapu City, and Zamboanga City.

Allegations

Marcos’ legal team claimed that there had been a prevalence of violence, intimidation, vote-buying, substitution of voters, presence of flying voters, misreading of ballots, malfunctioning and tampered machines, pre-loaded memory cards, and an abnormally high turnout of unaccounted votes for the position of Vice President in the contested areas.

Marcos counsels said that aside from the revision of the votes, they should have been allowed by the PET to present all of his evidence to prove the existence of electoral frauds during the trial.

In their motion, Marcos’ counsels urged the tribunal to issue a resolution constituting a special committee to conduct hearings, receive evidence, and assess the evidence for the annulment of election results.

On September 29, 2020, the tribunal sought the opinion of both the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and the Office of the Solicitor General, with both affirming that the PET could rule on the third course of action.

Marcos urged the PET to direct Comelec handwriting experts to conduct the technical examination of the voters’ signatures appearing on the Election Day Computerized Voters’ List as against the voters’ signatures appearing on the Voters Registration Records in the protested clustered precincts of the provinces of Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, and Basilan.

“Contrary to the assertion of the majority opinion, a review of the election protest filed by protestant Marcos would easily reveal that the same contains a detailed narration or specification of the important, substantial and ultimate facts showing the electoral frauds, anomalies, and irregularities in the protested precincts,” the lawyers said.

The remaining course of action involves Marcos’ position that there is a “substantial basis for the annulment of the election results in the provinces of Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao and Basilan in view of the widespread presence of terrorism, violence, threats, coercion, force, intimidation, and the proliferation and batch feeding of pre-shaded ballots in each of the two thousand seven hundred fifty-six protested clustered precincts in said areas”.

“The pre-shaded ballots in Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, and Basilan do not reflect the true vote of the electorate and their genuine choice for the 2016 vice-presidential elections has been substituted. The proper legal remedy to address the electoral frauds committed in the protested clustered precincts of Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, and Basilan is the annulment of the election results thereof,” the lawyers argued.PNA