Parties say four head revisors in VP ballot recount step down

VICE PRESIDENTIAL RECOUNT. Supreme Court (SC) Security Division chief Joery Gayanan conducts an ocular inspection of the ballot boxes for the recount of the recent vice-presidential votes set on April 2, 2018 at the sidelines of a press briefing at the SC Gymnasium in Manila on Tuesday (March 27, 2018). The SC will sit as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) during the recount filed by Ferdinand Marcos Jr. against Maria Leonor Robredo. (PNA photo by Jess Escaros Jr.)

The camp of former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and Vice President Leni Robredo announced that four heads of panels in the recount of votes in the 2016 vice presidential race resigned on Tuesday, April 3, a day after the Supreme Court (SC), acting as Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), started the repetition of tabulation.

The resignation was confirmed by Marcos’ lawyer Vic Rodriguez and Robredo’s lawyer Maria Bernadette Sardillo, but there was no reason cited for such decision.

“Worth asking why, considering that these are highly qualified people chosen no less by the PET and underwent a rigid [psychological] test,” Rodriguez said in a message.

Marcos’ camp issued another statement, hoping that their resignation “will not result in another round of delays especially now that we have started to uncover clear signs of fraud.”

“They are no ordinary revisors, having undergone rigid psychological test and meticulous screening by the PET. They must have a compelling reason for backing out and I am one with the Filipino people in asking why,” it read.

Sardillo, for her part, said that the resignation of the head revisors was “unfortunate as this will once more cause delay in the proceedings.”

A head revisor leads a three-member committee composed of the head revisor himself; one representative of Marcos, the protestant; and Robredo, the protestee.

Marcos filed the electoral protest against Robredo on June 29, 2016, claiming that the latter cheated in the May elections. He sought for a recount in Camarines Sur, Iloilo, and Negros Oriental — the three provinces Marcos identified as the best provinces where he could prove the irregularities he mentioned in his protest.

On the first day of the manual recount, Marcos claimed that there were wet ballots and missing voting precincts audit logs in Bato, Camarines Sur.

He told reporters that all ballots from four clustered precincts in the municipality have been found wet, making its contents “illegible.”

Marcos added that 38 out of 42 precincts in the same town had no audits. Rodriguez, however, clarified that the former senator meant 39 over 40 precincts.

Reacting to this, Robredo’s election lawyer Romulo Macalintal dismissed Marcos’ allegation, calling it “fake news.”

“There’s no sabotage, wala ‘yun. ‘Wag niyong ire-report ‘yun, fake news ‘yun. Kawawa naman ‘yung mga taga-Camarines Sur (It was nothing. Don’t report it because it is fake news. I pity the people of Camarines Sur),” Macalintal said in another press briefing.