Palace distances self from Marcos poll protest

Panelo said the Palace would respect whatever decision the Supreme Court will make with regard to the electoral protest filed by Marcos. (File Photo: Malacañang/Website)

MANILA — Malacañang on Tuesday opted not to interfere with former senator and losing vice presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s plea to nullify the victory of Vice President Leni Robredo in the 2016 national elections.

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo issued the statement the same day the Supreme Court, which acts as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), ordered the release of a report on the initial recount of votes in Marcos’s poll protest against Robredo.

Panelo said the executive branch would let the PET exercise its independence and judgment on the issue concerning Marcos and Robredo.

“As we have repeatedly said, we never interfere with the function and duty and work of any co-equal branch, as well as independent constitutional bodies. So we’ll leave it on that,” he said in a Palace press briefing.

“We’ll just wait. Let the parties argue their case in court and the PET will have to render its decision,” Panelo added.

Earlier Tuesday, the PET allowed the release of a committee report on the result of revision of ballots from three pilot provinces picked by Marcos in his election protest against Robredo.

The three pilot provinces chosen by Marcos are Camarines Sur, Negros Oriental, and Iloilo.

Marcos believed that the said provinces had suffered from vote-rigging during the conduct of the 2016 vice presidential derby.

The PET also required the two camps to comment on the motion to void results in Camarines Sur, Negros Oriental, and Iloilo.

It was on June 29, 2016 when Marcos filed an electoral protest before the PET to challenge Robredo’s victory in the vice-presidential race held the same year.

Marcos had claimed that Robredo defeated him in the 2016 vice presidential elections by some 263,473 votes due to “massive cheating.

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Panelo said the Palace would respect whatever decision the Supreme Court will make with regard to the electoral protest filed by Marcos.

“We will follow as everybody should,” the Palace official said. “So whatever the decision on the court [will be], we should abide by it.”