SC convenes PET to resolve Mar vs Binay, other poll cases

MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court (SC) has convened as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) as Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno vowed to expedite resolution of pending cases from the 2010 and 2013 elections.

Among the cases pending with the PET is the electoral protest filed by Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II against Vice President Jejomar Binay in the May 2010 polls.

Sitting as the PET, the high court issued recently Administrative Order No. 126-2015 designating lawyer Felipa Anama as its new clerk of court.

The order was signed by Sereno as chairman of the tribunal. Two other senior members are Associate Justices Presbitero Velasco Jr. and Teresita Leonardo-de Castro.

De Castro sat for Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, who was on leave when the order was approved last Aug. 6.

Anama was appointed on the basis of the retirement last July 14 of lawyer Enriqueta Vidal as SC clerk of court and concurrent PET clerk of court.

“Now, therefore, pursuant to, and by virtue of, the authority vested by Rule 11 of the 2010 Rules of the Presidential Electoral Tribunal in relation to the revised Resolution in AM No. 99-12-08-SC, and for and behalf of the tribunal, the undersigned hereby designates Atty. Felipa Anama as Clerk of the Tribunal, who shall be entitled to the privileges and benefits previously enjoyed by her immediate predecessor, effective upon her assumption to duty,” read the order.

Recently, Sereno gave assurance that the SC would resolve pending poll cases from previous elections.

“We are expediting election cases; they are a priority,” she said during the third Chief Justice Meets the Press forum last Aug. 27.

She said the SC would do this also in preparation for the expected filing of new cases related to next year’s national polls.

The last time the PET acted on the Roxas-Binay case was in December 2012 when it granted a request of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to use 75 percent of the ballot boxes containing votes under protest by Roxas for this year’s elections to save the government more than P160 million.