Despite setback, donations for Leni’s counter-protest keep coming

MANILA, Philippines - Undeterred by the recent decision of the Supreme Court sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), supporters of Vice President Leni Robredo continue to contribute to the “Piso Para sa Laban ni Leni.”

As this developed, Robredo complained of a funding cut for 2018, though the proposed budget for her office increased by P15 million from P428.6 million this year.

As of yesterday, donations made through the online fundraising campaign, launched last July 4 by women supporters of Robredo, has reached nearly P7 million.

The SC recently junked a petition filed by Robredo’s supporters to help pay the remaining fee for her counter-protest.

The group, composed of The Outstanding Women in the Nation’s Service or TOWNS awardees, expressed disappointment over the SC ruling, saying it denied them their right to protect their vote for Robredo in the May 2016 elections.

They said the PET decision did not even explain the basis for the denial.

They said the ruling “seems to favor candidates with deeper pockets.”?“Are the Supreme Court justices ignoring 25,000 Filipinos?” Museo Pambata founder Cristina Lim-Yuson, one of the petitioners, asked.?“Every peso is a contribution of the Filipino voter – a tricycle driver, OFW, housewife, laborer, artist, entrepreneur and industry leader, in protection of his/her vote,” former human rights commissioner Paulynn Sicam, also a petitioner, said.

The other petitioners included former Pag-IBIG Fund chief executive officer Zorayda Amelia Alonzo, award-winning singer Celeste Legaspi-Gallardo, Ateneo de Manila University press director Karina Bolasco and former social welfare secretary Corazon Soliman.

The group is set to file a motion for reconsideration before the SC.?If their motion for reconsideration is granted by the PET, they will be depositing the money directly to the high court’s account and not to that of Robredo.

Should their petition be junked again, the funds will be donated instead to Robredo’s anti-poverty program Angat Buhay. 

Earlier, the SC granted the request of Robredo’s lawyers for an extension of her deadline to pay the remaining P7.43 million required to process her counter-protest against Marcos. 

Robredo paid the initial deposit of P8 million last May 2.

Marcos, on the other hand, has completed payment of the P66.02 million protest fee.

Marcos is contesting the poll results in 39,221 clustered precincts, while Robredo’s counter-protest covers 8,042 clustered precincts.

Budget cut

“Our allocation for salaries went up because positions that were not filled in the past will now be filled,” Robredo told reporters in Filipino after attending the House appropriations committee hearing on her 2018 budget.

“But the reduction in our maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE), it’s substantial,” she said.

Budget documents show that allocation for salaries for the Office of the Vice President will increase from P61.1 million this year to P83.6 million next year.