The Supreme Court has reset its deliberation on the election protest filed by former senator Ferdinand “Bong bong” Marcos Jr. against Vice President Leni Robredo since two of the justices were on leave.
The Marcos case filed with the Presidential Electoral Tribunal was included in the SC’s regular en banc session on Tuesday. PET is composed of 15 justices of the high court.
However, PET members agreed to defer to next Tuesday, July 12, their discussions on Marcos’ protest.
A court insider said that two magistrates were on leave yesterday—Associate Justice Jose Mendoza and Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno, who is also chair of the tribunal.
The case was raffled to Associate Justice Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa, appointee and known buddy of former President Benigno Aquino III, who is tasked to study the protest and submit recommendations for actions of the PET.
Caguioa and Aquino were classmates from elementary to college at the Ateneo de Manila University. Prior to his appointment to the SC last January, Caguioa was Aquino’s chief presidential legal counsel and then secretary of justice.
Aquino’s sister, actress Kris Aquino was the top campaign contributor of Robredo in the polls.
In his protest, Marcos assailed the election results in 39,221 clustered precincts in 25 provinces and five cities all over the country involving some nine million votes.
Marcos lost to Robredo by 263,473 votes in the final and official tally of votes. He garnered 14,155,344 votes, while Robredo got 14,418, 817 votes.
He sought the nullification of about a million votes cast in three provinces—Lanao del Sur, Basilan and Maguindanao because of alleged massive cheating.
Marcos also asked the electoral tribunal to order the reopening of ballots and manual recount of about eight million votes in 23 provinces and five cities.
The son and namesake of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos sought the annulment of the proclamation Robredo as vice president and his declaration as duly elected vice president.