MANILA, Philippines — The camp of former Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is expecting the dismissal of Vice President Leni Robredo's counter-protest for not paying the fee in time.
In a phone interview with ANC's 'Headstart,' lawyer Vic Rodriguez, Marcos' spokesperson, said that Robredo's camp "missed their chance" to continue their counter-protest.
"We complied with the ruling of the tribunal and they did not. So I think they missed their chance and we will move for the dismissal of their counter-protest," Rodriguez said.
"That way, the whole process will be able to run it's natural course unimpeded with unnecessary delays being filed by the protestee," he added.
The Supreme Court, acting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, ordered both Marcos and Robredo to pay a total of P81.46 million for their electoral protests.
Both are required to pay the cash deposits in two installments on or before April 14 and June 14. However, given April 14 fell on Good Friday, a national holiday, the deadline was moved to April 17.
On Monday, Marcos made a partial payment of P36 million to the Supreme Court to cover his electoral protest against Robredo.
Robredo however failed to pay the partial payment of P8 million to the Supreme Court.
In a press briefing on Monday, Robredo's election lawyer, Romulo Macalintal, said that their camp will only pay for the counter-protest after Marcos's camp has proven that there is indeed election fraud.
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Rodriguez said that according to Rule 34 of the PET, Robredo's counter-protest may be dismissed due to her failure to pay the fee.
He added that the PET will have no more reason to not set the case for a preliminary conference.
The preliminary conference will allow the Marcos camp to name three provinces "best exemplifies the fraud," Rodriguez said.
He also said that the camp of the vice president is intentionally delaying the electoral protest of the former senator, saying that they filed many "unnecessary motions" to do so.
"It is in our position and humble submission, the only intent is to delay the already very slow pace of this election protest," Rodriguez said.