MANILA, Philippines — You have no one to blame but yourself.
The camp of Vice President Leni Robredo on Monday issued this message to Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. following the former senator’s repeated complaints about the delay in the legal proceedings of the election protest case he had filed against his 2016 poll rival.
“He only has to blame himself for filing a weak and flawed election protest that the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) has to resolve many preliminary matters before the case could move on,” said Robredo’s legal counsel Romulo Macalintal in a statement released to media.
Macalintal claimed that Marcos’ complaint “is baseless and self-serving since he was the one who is filing baseless motions and raising pointless issues.”
“It was Marcos who first asked the PET to first resolve the issue of defective election system and his vaunted claim that he would be presenting voluminous documents and evidence to prove his case,” the lawyer
Almost one year after the first preliminary hearing, Marcos agreed to dismiss the issue on regularity of the automated election system and waived the presentation of his alleged voluminous evidence, according to Robredo’s lawyer.
Also, Macalintal said Marcos’ repeated claim of bias of the PET in favor of Robredo “is a mere ploy or strategy to preempt the would-be results of the recount of the ballots.
“No election protest involving the automated polls since 2010 to the present has been successfully pursued and Marcos is fully aware of this situation, thus his claim of bias of the PET in favor of Robredo as he could not indeed accept defeat in good grace,” he said.
Macalintal said he expected the PET to start the recount of ballots from the province of Camarines Sur in the second week of February.
Meanwhile, Robredo’s other legal counsel, Maria Bernadette Sardillo, expressed confidence that the recount would affirm the Vice President’s victory in the 2016 elections.
“Sa panig ni Vice President Robredo, we are very confident na pagkatapos po na mabuksan at mabilang ang mga balota mula sa tatlong probinsya ay madi-dismiss ang protesta,” said Sardillo, referring to Marcos’ pilot provinces – Negros Oriental, Iloilo and Camarines Sur.
