A lawyer for Vice President Leni Robredo on Wednesday acknowledged that one of her revisors in the ongoing recount had attended an outing with personnel of the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, but said he did so in his “persona capacity” and without the approval of his superiors.
“Had we known it, we would not have allowed it to happen,” said Emil Marañon, a lawyer for Robredo.
On Monday, Marcos asked the PET to investigate for possible impropriety the recent outing in a resort in Calamba, Laguna, in which PET personnel involved in the ongoing recount of votes for the 2016 vice presidential race were joined by Robredo’s revisor, Osmundo Abuyuan.
But Robredo’s camp said both sides were invited to the outing, and that Marcos even sent food for the trip, an allegation the Marcos camp denied Wednesday.
The Robredo camp said CCTV foogate would show a Marcos staff member leaving a bag of snacks at the fourth floor of the revision venue just before the outing.
A Marcos spokesman, lawyer Vic Rodriguez, dismissed the charge.
“We challenge Mrs. Leni Robredo to go ahead and produce such footage provided it is authentic and not another product of her many lies,” he said.
Marañon, on the other hand, said an investigation of the outing had already been held, and that the moves by Marcos to have it investigated were just “a PR stunt.”
“Protestant Marcos conveniently omitted these facts in order to suit his narrative that he was a victim during the 09 May 2016 National and Local Elections,” it said. “Thus, if only to confirm that the revisors of protestant Marcos were not only aware, but even donated snacks to the outing, the CCTV footage must be released.”
Rodriguez shot back: “Her claim that we know of her sponsored pool party and even sent food is a big lie. We have shown pictures of how she has corrupted PET Head Revisors and pictures don’t lie. To date, all she has are alibis and more lies. Huling huli na nagpapalusot pa,” he said, in a text message.
Marcos filed an election protest on June 29, 2016, claiming that the camp of Robredo cheated in the automated polls in the May 2016 national polls.
Robredo won the vice presidential race in the May 2016 polls with 14,418,817 votes or 263,473 more than Marcos’ 14,155,344 votes.
The recount is ongoing.