SC halts retrieval of ballots from Iloilo City, says Robredo legal consultant

MANILA, Philippines — A legal consultant of Vice President Leni Robredo on Tuesday claimed that the Supreme Court ordered to stop the retrieval of ballot boxes from Iloilo City, which her camp claims should not be treated as part of Iloilo province, one of the pilot areas identified in an election protest against her.

Emil Marañon, a consultant for Robredo’s legal team, said that the local personnel of the Supreme Court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, received a “verbal order” from Manila cancelling the retrieval of ballot boxes from Iloilo City.

“But, apparently, this morning, Supreme Court representatives in Iloilo received a verbal order canceling the retrieval of ballot boxes in Iloilo (City),” he said in a radio interview, a transcript of which was provided by Robredo’s office.

“So, I think the Supreme Court considered the point we raised and today I think they already gave an order to their people here not to retrieve the City of Iloilo. So that’s around 430 ballot boxes,” he added.

When asked about the development, Ted Te, the Supreme Court’s spokesman, said that he had not received any information from the PET regarding the matter.

Vic Rodriguez, a spokesman for former Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, who filed an election protest against Robredo, refused to comment to avoid any “sub judice on [his] part.”

Marañon on Monday argued that lloilo City was not part of Iloilo province, one of the three pilot provinces identified by Marcos in his election protest against Robredo.

He said that Iloilo City became independent of the province through Commonwealth Act 158 and was later classified as a highly urbanized city.

The PET is handling the electoral protest of Marcos, the son of the late Philippine strongman who committed massive human rights abuses and corruption during his time.

Marcos is alleging that vote-counting machines used during the 2016 elections were rigged to favor Robredo, who was the administration candidate.

READ: 'This is fake news': Robredo calls out report claiming she lost over 21,000 votes

The vice president’s legal consultant said that they were guarding the process to ensure that they would not be surprised about the condition of the ballot boxes, some of which had been drenched by the rains.

“We also don’t want the public to be misled because in our experience with Camarines Sur the camp of Bongbong Marcos used the damaged and wet ballots in their PR (public relations) stunt,” he said.

He also expressed confidence that the count of the vote-counting machines and that of the manual recount would tally even if he admitted that the 50-percent threshold to be used by the PET in the recount would affect Robredo’s votes.

“If they return the 25-percent threshold, then we are very, very confident that the results on election day would match up with the last vote to be released by the recount,” he said.

Aside from Iloilo and Camarines Sur, Marcos also identified Negros Oriental as one of the pilot areas. He should be able to show a substantial recovery of votes in these areas for the PET to order a recount in the other provinces and cities he named in his complaint.

READ: Robredo camp slams Marcos attempt to influence recount