Former Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr. has not conceded his loss in the election protest he filed against Vice President Ma. Leonor “Leni” Robredo before the Supreme Court (SC), sitting as Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET).
(MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO)
Marcos’ spokesperson and lawyer Vic Rodriguez said in a television interview:
“Hindi kami natatakot sa ano man ang maging hatol ng tribunal (We are not afraid of whatever is the decision of the tribunal),” Rodriguez said.
“Ang sinasabi lang namin (What we are only saying), we want to see and get hold of the entire copy of the decision,” he pointed out.
Last Tuesday, Feb. 16, the SC announced the dismissal of Marcos’ protest in a unanimous vote of the 15 justices. The SC also said the counter-protest of Vice President Robredo was also dismissed.
Rodriguez said: “We want to make sure before we make any definitive statement, before we can make any intelligent legal moves should we decide to move further.”
“But as of now wala pang single person, walang authority makapagsabi sa ating lahat, not even the spokesperson of the Supreme Court na authorized na nga magsalita but when pressed for details he cannot provide anything (there is no single person, no authority who can say, not even Hosaka, who could say what are the contents of the SC ruling),” Rodriguez said.
He reminded that the election protest contains three causes of action including the third which calls for the annulment of election results in the provinces of Lanao del Sur, Basilan and Maguindanao due to allegations of irregularities.
“Hanggang hindi pa namin naririnig sa Korte Suprema na yung desisyon na unanimous ay kasama yung aming third cause of action annulment ng election results (Until we have not heard from the SC that the decision includes our third cause of action),” he pointed out.
He said the PET had already acted on the two other causes of actions including the recount of the ballots in the three pilot provinces chosen by Marcos himself to represent irregularities, namely, Camarines Sur, Iloilo, and Negros Oriental.
“Dismissing the manual recount and judicial revision wala tayong debate roon (we have no debate over that),” he said.
For his part, Robredo’s lawyer Romulo Macalintal said there is no doubt that what the PET dismissed was the entire election protest of Marcos.