Granting Legarda’s motion, the PET left 10 towns of Lanao del Sur as the remaining subjects of her pilot precincts for the first aspect of her electoral protest against Vice President Noli de Castro.
In her urgent motion filed through lawyer Sixto Brillantes Jr., Legarda admitted she could not afford to pay the expenses needed for the retabulation in the 10 municipalities in Lanao del Norte and the five municipalities in Surigao del Sur.
"The retabulation of the above-mentioned pilot precincts from Lanao del Norte and Surigao del Sur will entail so much expense, where the process will simply involve recanvassing of mere election returns, considered in the light of the prior ruling of the Honorable Tribunal that the required deposits for expenses for such retabulation are fixed at P500 per precinct, rather than P500 per ballot box, interpreting most strictly the Tribunal rules on deposits," she said.
Last June 30, Legarda partially deposited a total of P4,084,500 with the PET, which was supposed to cover the first and second aspects of her protest.
In an en banc resolution released to the media yesterday, the PET also said the start of the recount and revision of ballots involved in Legarda’s electoral protest against De Castro would begin on Dec. 12.
The recount starting Dec. 12 will begin with the ballots collected from Cebu.
The PET ordered Legarda and De Castro to submit the names of their revisers and alternate revisers no later than Dec. 5, 2005.
It also required Legarda to post a cash deposit amounting to P3,882,000 for the revision of ballots from 7,764 polling precincts in the six congressional districts of Cebu.
"It appears from the records that the protestant only made a partial cash deposit for the instant electoral protest," the PET said.
"Taking into account the expenses connected with the collection and return of the ballot boxes subject of the protest and other incidental expenses vis-à-vis the rate of P500 cash deposit per precinct which may only be sufficient to cover the salaries of the head revisers, protestant’s revisers and protestee’s revisers, the protestant is hereby directed to make a cash deposit in the amount equivalent to the total number of precincts of the legislative districts of Cebu."
The PET noted that there are a total of 7,764 precincts in the six legislative districts of Cebu, which will be multiplied by P500 per precinct and equivalent to a total of P3,882,000.
Legarda previously deposited more than P4 million to pay for her protest.
During the preliminary hearing on Legarda’s electoral protest against De Castro, Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. asked Legarda to increase her partial deposit.
Davide said the current rate of P100 to P120 per reviser and head revisers, respectively, for each ballot box will encourage only a few to act as revisers and head revisers.
Legarda said that under such an arrangement, she anticipates her posted deposits will be "substantially depleted" if she pursues the recounting of the many election returns covering several precincts in the 10 municipalities in Lanao del Norte and five municipalities in Surigao del Sur.