Francis Tolentino drops poll protest vs. De Lima

Tolentino withdrew his protest in a motion dated January 3, telling the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) that he will have to “indulge himself into few weeks from now, being a senatorial candidate in the upcoming May 2019 elections for which his undivided attention for the same is indispensable.” (File photo: Francis Tolentino/Facebook)

More than two years after he questioned the election results, former presidential adviser Francis Tolentino dropped his electoral protest against Senator Leila de Lima in the 2016 senatorial elections.

Tolentino withdrew his protest in a motion dated January 3, telling the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) that he will have to “indulge himself into few weeks from now, being a senatorial candidate in the upcoming May 2019 elections for which his undivided attention for the same is indispensable.”

It was in October 2016 when Tolentino filed an electoral protest after he landed on the 13th place in the senatorial race. De Lima, who ended up on the 12th place or the last Senate seat, bested Tolentino with an edge of around 1.3 million votes.

The Senatorial aspirant accused De Lima of cheating during the 2016 elections.

The former Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) chair said in his motion that he decided to “voluntarily withdraw his protest but without prejudice to his rights pertaining to the Motion for the Return of Payments which is yet to be resolved by this Honorable Tribunal and the return of any excess deposit made.”

“He is withdrawing with his head held up high, and pride and honor intact only for himself, but also to all those who aspire for free and honest elections,” the motion read.

Tolentino had filed a motion to suspend his electoral protest against De Lima on October 12, 2018 as he will run for senator anew.

“Nag-file muna ako ng motion to suspend the hearings sa electoral protest ko kay De Lima. So ‘di ba noong huling election number 13 ako, 12 si De Lima. So kahit nagfile ako ng motion to suspend proceedings hindi pa rin namin tinatanggap ‘yung pagkapanalo ni De Lima (I filed a motion to suspend the hearing on my electoral protest against De Lima. During the last election, I landed on the 13th spot, while De Lima is in 12th place. So even if I filed a motion to suspend proceedings, I am still not accepting De Lima’s victory),” he earlier told reporters.

“Itong ginagawa kong pagfi-file [ay] para taumbayan na ang magdesisyon ng election protest ko (I filed it so that Filipino people will be the ones to decide on my election protest),” he added.

His motion, however, was denied by the SET in Resolution 16-140 dated November 22 last year.

Tolentino is running under the ruling party, Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban).