THE Supreme Court has rescheduled the recount of the votes in the 2016 vice presidential race following the electoral protest filed by former senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on April 2 against Leni Robredo.
Robredo won the vice presidential race but Marcos claims he was cheated and demanded a recount of the votes.
The recount was confirmed by both camps on Wednesday. The recount was first scheduled in February but was later reset to March 19.
Marcos’ spokesman Vic Rodriguez said the high court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, cited lack of “revisors” as the reason for the rescheduling of the recount.
The PET informed the parties that only 42 revisors passed the new mandatory psychological evaluation, hence the need for eight more to complete the required 50 vote revisors, Rodriquez said.
Maria Bernadette Sardillo, one of Robredo’s legal counsels, said the PET called for a meeting on Tuesday afternoon regarding the matter.
“We expect to be called for another meeting soon to finalize arrangements,” Sardillo said.
“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.”
The ballot recount covers the three pilot provinces of Camarines Sur, Iloilo and Negros Oriental, which were chosen by Marcos as the best provinces where he could prove the irregularities he cited in his poll protest.
Earlier, both camps agreed to withdraw all the motions they had filed before the PET to be able to proceed with the recount.
Marcos filed his protest on June 29, 2016, claiming the camp of Robredo cheated in the automated polls in May of that year.
Marcos contested the results in 132,446 precincts in 39,221 clustered precincts covering 27 provinces and cities.
In his preliminary conference briefing, Marcos also sought a recount in Camarines Sur, Iloilo and Negros Oriental.
Robredo filed her answer in August last year and filed a counter-protest. She questioned the results in more than 30,000 polling precincts in several provinces where Marcos won.
She also sought the dismissal of the protest for lack of merit.
The PET, in a ruling earlier this year, dumped Robredo’s plea and proceeded with the case after finding Marcos’ protest sufficient in form and substance.
Robredo won the vice presidential race with 14,418,817 votes or 263,473 more than Marcos’ 14,155,344 votes.