THE camp of former senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Sunday renewed its challenge to Vice President Leni Robredo to sign a joint motion withdrawing all their pending motions before the Supreme Court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, to speed up the recount for the election protest.
Marcos lost to Robredo by 263,473 votes in the May 2016 elections, which the former senator claimed was marred by fraud.
“To clear the issue conclusively on the ballot images, undervotes and overvotes, we would like to challenge Mrs. Leni Robredo to sign a joint motion withdrawing all our outstanding motions so we could go straight to the recount,” Marcos’ spokesman Victor Rodriguez said in a statement.
“We have been instructed by senator Marcos to draft the joint motion and senator Marcos is ready to sign it anytime. We are fervently hoping that Mrs. Robredo will do the same.
“In so doing, we could hasten the process and go straight to the ballots. The ballots are the best evidence and we should just proceed with the recount.”
Marcos earlier claimed that he found “proof” of fraud to support his election protest against Robredo after they reviewed some of the soft copies of ballot images from the clustered precincts in several towns in the pilot provinces of Camarines Sur and Negros Oriental.
He said copies of the ballot images from Barangay Salvacion in Tigaon, Camarines sur, and barangays Poblacion and Jilocon in Negros Oriental showed that the votes for him were not counted and were considered undervotes.
Marcos said in some of the ballot images, even though two or more candidates were shaded in the vice presidential race, the votes still went for Robredo instead of being declared overvotes.
He also questioned the presence of square shapes in the ballot images instead of the oval shapes that the voters shaded for their choice of candidates.
Robredo’s counsel, Romulo Macalintal, shrugged off Marcos’ claims, saying they were “highly ridiculous if not outright frivolous.”
Rodriguez then insisted that the ballot images under their possession, which are being claimed by Robredo’s camp as “fabricated,” were obtained from the high court.