PET starts retrieval of Iloilo ballots for VP vote recount

RETRIEVAL OF BALLOTS. The retrieval of more than 2,000 ballot boxes in the city and province of Iloilo in preparation for the vote recount in line with the poll protest of defeated Vice Presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr starts Monday (May 21). (Photo by Cindy Ferrer/PNA)

ILOILO CITY — The Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) on Monday started retrieving the more than 2,000 ballot boxes from Iloilo City and the province in preparation for the vote recount in line with the poll protest of defeated Vice Presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

The ballot boxes are from the 2,748 clustered precincts in the city and the province, said lawyer Emilio Marañon, one of the members of the legal team of Vice President Leni Robredo, who is here to observe the retrieval.

Of the number, 2,318 of the clustered precincts are from the province and 430 from the city.

The five-day retrieval of ballots will end May 25.

It is being done per district, starting with the first district of the province composed of the towns of Oton, Tigbauan, Tubungan, Igbaras, Guimbal, Miag-ao and San Joaquin.
Retrieval of ballots from Iloilo City will be done simultaneously with the second district of the province on Tuesday. These towns in second district are composed of Leganes, Pavia, Zarraga, New Lucena,Santa Barbara, San Miguel, Alimodian and Leon.

These ballot boxes are gathered at the warehouse of the Philippine Span Asia Carrier Corp. in the village of Balabago, district of Jaro in this city.

Marañon said these ballots will be shipped to Manila two to three days after their retrieved.

The recount of ballots from Iloilo will be done after completion of the recount of the ballot boxes in Camarines Sur, he said.

Ballots from the 800 out of the about 1,800 clustered precincts in Camarines Sur have been recounted, he added.

Marañon expressed confidence that the result of the votes during the 2016 elections will match with the recount of the Supreme Court.

“As always, we are saying that so long that the process of the counting of votes is right, we are very confident that the results during the previous election will match with the recount,” he said.

Iloilo province, a known bailiwick of the Liberal Party, was one of three pilot provinces of the vote recount plea of Marcos along with Camarines Sur and Negros Oriental.

During the 2016 elections, Robredo won in Iloilo province with total votes of 573,829 against Marcos who garnered 94,411 votes.

The Vice President also won in Iloilo City with 137,662 votes against 33,778 votes of Marcos.

The vote recount protest of Marcos cover 22 provinces and five cities in the whole country.
But he said that the three pilot provinces will determine whether the protest case of Marcos will continue in other areas or not.

“If there is substantial recovery then it will continue with rest of the results, but if none, the case will be dismissed,” he said.

Marañon said that they are expecting that the recount of the votes from the three pilot provinces will be completed within eight months.

However, he said that they cannot determine yet when the results will come out.