Election lawyer Romulo Macalintal, the legal counsel of Vice President Leni Robredo, debunked a claim by presidential aspirant Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. that he was cheated in the 2016 vice presidential race.

Macalintal, who represented Robredo in the poll protest against Marcos, responded to the latter’s “baseless” allegations via Facebook Live.

"Iyong sinasabi ni Mr. Marcos na nadaya siya noong 2016 at ang pagkakapanalo ng Vice President ay dahil sa daya, iyan po'y walang katotohanan (What Marcos said that he was cheated in 2016 and the victory of Robredo was due to cheating, that’s not true)," he said.

"Iyang mga statement na iyan ni Mr. Marcos, iyan ang sinasabi nating statement ng mga kandidatong hindi marunong tumanggap ng pagkatalo (That statement of Mr. Marcos, that’s the statement of candidates who can’t accept defeat)," he added.

The veteran lawyer reiterated that Marcos lost in the counting of votes following the election and in the ballot recount that was conducted as part of his protest before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET).

The Supreme Court (SC), sitting as the PET, unanimously dismissed the electoral protest filed by Marcos against Robredo last year.

READ: SC upholds VP Robredo’s win

Based on its decision, the PET dismissed the case because Marcos was not able to justify an annulment of elections in the three Mindanao provinces—Lanao del Sur, Basilan, and Maguindanao—which was his third cause of action in his poll protest.

In his protest, Macalintal noted that Marcos himself chose Iloilo, Camarines Sur, and Negros Oriental as his three pilot provinces where he wanted votes to be recounted.

“Nang binilang ang mga balota mula sa mga presinto na kanyang iprinotesta, walang nakitang ebidensya ng pandaraya. Nagtugma ang count ng mga balota doon sa (When the ballots were counted from the precincts that he protested, there was no evidence of cheating seen. The count of the ballots matched those in the) election returns ng (of the) automated election,” Macalintal said.

He also disputed Marcos’ claim that the vote-counting machines used were defective after he and Robredo both gained additional votes after the recount.

Robredo’s lawyer explained that there were instances when voters used the checkmark to indicate their vote instead of shading the oval.

He cited these votes were not tallied by the counting machines but were counted during the recount by PET.

Robredo defeated Marcos by 263,473 votes in the 2016 vice presidential race and gained around 15,000 more votes after the recount.