VICE President Leni Robredo is asking the Supreme Court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, to reject the opposition of former senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to the use of decrypted ballot images for the revision and recount in his election protest.
She said “Marcos was in conflict with himself.”
In a comment and an opposition to Marcos’ motion for partial reconsideration, Romulo Macalintal, Robredo’s lawyer, said Marcos’ opposition to the Sept. 18 PET resolution must be dumped for lack of merit since it was a mere reiteration of his previous arguments.
“Without any evidence to the contrary, the ballots are the best evidence to show the intent of the voters,” Macalintal said.
He said Marcos also failed to present any evidence to substantiate his allegations of massive electoral anomalies, fraud and irregularities.
He said Marcos was veering away from his previous statement that the ballots were the best evidence in his election protest by alleging that the transmitted results were not authentic and did not faithfully reflect the true voice of the Filipino voters.
Despite Marcos’ efforts to undermine the results of the 2016 vice presidential elections by citing some missing ballot sequence numbers in Pili, Camarines Sur, Macalintal said, the losing candidate could not deny the fact that the votes as transmitted were the same as the results reflected in the election returns.
“Thus, regardless of his perceived anomalies, all elections documents”•official ballots, decrypted ballot images and election returns”•confirm the victory of protestee Robredo and the defeat of protestant Marcos,” Macalintal said.