Marcos camp to comply with PET sanction over gag order violation

Marcos (centre) filed the protest on June 29, 2016, claiming the camp of Robredo cheated in the automated polls in May that year. (Photo: Bongbong Marcos/Facebook)

MANILA — The camp of former senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Wednesday said they will comply with the order of the Supreme Court (SC), sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), to pay a PHP50,000 fine for disclosing sensitive information regarding the recount of the votes for the 2016 vice presidential race.

“From the filing of the protest and all through out its processes we have been respectful of the Tribunal. We, however, respect the decision of the Court and be more mindful of the subjudice rule in the future. We will continuously abide by the PET rulings as we continue our quest for justice in our on-going election protest,” Marcos’ spokesperson Atty. Vic Rodriguez said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the camp of Vice President Maria Leonor Robredo said they have yet to receive a copy of the tribunal’s order.

“We have not received a copy of the resolution and we don’t want to preempt the Supreme Court,” Robredo’s legal counsel Romulo Macalintal said in a statement.

“However, we stand firm that the lies propagated by the Marcos camp called on us to defend ourselves. Sometimes, we have no choice but to speak out, in order for the public to be enlightened amid the relentless black propaganda, which aims to discredit the recount being spearheaded by the PET,” Macalintal said in a statement.

Both camps were directed to pay PHP50,000 each for their arguments and discussing the merits of the poll protest cases in public and media interviews.

“PET Action, June 26 | SC, as PET in Case no. 0005 (Marcos v Robredo), fines parties and counsels PHP50,000 each for violation of sub judice rule,” the SC Public Information Office (PIO) said in its Twitter account.

Last April 10, the PET directed both parties to show cause and explain why they should not be cited in contempt for violating the resolutions dated Feb. 13, 2018 and Mar. 20, 2018.

In a resolution dated Feb. 13, the tribunal ordered the parties to strictly observe the sub judice rule pending the proceedings of the instant case.

This was reiterated in another resolution dated March 20, 2018.

However, despite PET’s stern directives, several news reports showed that the parties, their counsels or their representatives, continued to disclose sensitive information regarding the revision process to the public, a clear violation of the tribunal’s resolutions.

The manual recount of votes began on March 19 covering Marcos’ three pilot provinces namely, Camarines Sur, Iloilo, and Negros Oriental.

Marcos filed the protest on June 29, 2016, claiming the camp of Robredo cheated in the automated polls in May that year.

In his protest, Marcos contested the results from 132,446 precincts in 39,221 clusters, covering 27 provinces and cities.

Robredo was declared the winner of the vice presidential race in the May 2016 polls with 14,418,817 votes or 263,473 more than Marcos’ 14,155,344 votes.