THE Supreme Court will hold today its preliminary conference on the election protest and counter-protest filed by both former senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Vice President Leni Robredo, respectively, in connection with the vice presidential race in last year’s elections.
Marcos supporters gathered outside the Supreme Court compound on Monday for an overnight vigil and to convey their sentiments for the immediate resolution of the protest.
Marcos was set to join the vigil at 10 p.m.
The 15-member bench, acting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, originally set the preliminary conference on the protest of Marcos and the counter-protest of Robredo on June 21, but moved it to July 11 to give way for the oral arguments and the resolution of the petitions against President Rodrigo Duterte’s martial law declaration in Mindanao.
Both parties set the issues to be tackled and resolved by the tribunal during the preliminary hearing.
The PET has resolved to set just one preliminary conference for the protest and counter-protest, citing Rule 3 of the 2010 PET Rules that allows adjustment in the rules “to achieve a just, expeditious and inexpensive determination and disposition of every contest before the tribunal.”
The tribunal has scheduled the hearing on the plea by Marcos, the only son of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos, after it denied Robredo’s motion questioning the cash bonds set by the tribunal for the protest and counter-protest.
Marcos has repeatedly pleaded for the immediate proceedings and resolution of the case stemming from the general elections in May last year in which he is questioning his loss to Robredo in the vice presidential race.
He earlier filed successive motions seeking the immediate resolution of his election protest.
The electoral tribunal earlier required Marcos and Robredo to pay cash deposits of P66.02 million and P15.44 million, respectively, for their protest and counter-protest.
Marcos filed the protest on June 29 last year, claiming that the camp of Robredo cheated in the automated elections. He sought annulment of about a million votes cast in Lanao del Sur, Basilan and Maguindanao.
In his protest, Marcos contested the results in a total of 132,446 precincts in 39,221 clustered precincts covering 27 provinces and cities.
Robredo filed her answer in August last year and also filed a counter-protest and questioned the results in over 30,000 polling precincts in several provinces where Marcos won.
She also sought the dismissal of Marcos’ protest.
However, the high court, in a ruling earlier this year, dumped Robredo’s plea and proceeded with the case.
Robredo won the vice presidential race with 14,418,817 votes or 263,473 more than Marcos, who received 14,155,344 votes.