Robredo lawyer tells Marcos camp to read ground reports before claiming poll fraud

MANILA, Philippines — A lawyer for Vice President Leni Robredo said on Thursday that the spokesman of former Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. should read reports from the ground before issuing statements alleging irregularities in the electoral protest he filed against her.

Vic Rodriguez, a spokesman for Marcos, recently described as “deeply disturbing” the discovery of alleged irregularities in the ballots from Iloilo province, particularly reports of voting papers placed inside plastic containers commonly used for storage.

“We are deeply disturbed as to these kinds of reports and are in serious discussion whether there are still authentic documents left to be examined after they were observed to have been placed in ordinary plastic containers that are readily available in supermarkets instead of the much hyped tamperproof VCM’s or official ballot boxes of Smartmatic as required by law,” Rodriguez said in a statement.

This did not sit well with Maria Bernadette Sardillo, an election lawyer for the vice president, who said: “We gently remind our counterpart to read the reports from the ground as it would explain the so-called anomalies that he announced to the media.”

Both parties have been issued show-cause orders by the Supreme Court, which sits as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, for giving statements on an ongoing case. Both parties have responded to the order but have also continued to talk to media about the electoral protest.

A Commission on Elections official from Miagao, Iloilo reported last year that several ballot boxes and their contents were destroyed by rainwater due to a hole in the roof of the warehouse where they were stored.

In a report, Jessie Borro Jr., an Election Officer IV, informed Elizabeth Doronilla, the provincial election supervisor of Iloilo, that a recovery team discovered that “numerous” ballot boxes and their contents were totally destroyed due to flooding caused by rainwater.

He said that the team drained, dried, cleaned and labeled the ballot boxes and their contents, adding that their transfer was completed on Sept. 23, 2017.

The report by Glenda Losanta, who was the acting municipal treasurer of Miagao, said that the boxes and their contents were wrapped in plastic bags and placed in carton boxes and properly identified to prevent further damage and deterioration, explaining Rodriguez’ allegation of irregularities.

Losanta’s report was attached to the memorandum sent by Borro.

The camp of Marcos also received the same report, according to Sardillo.

Iloilo, Camarines Sur and Negros Oriental are the three pilot provinces identified in the election protest filed by Marcos, a former senator as well as the son and namesake of the late dictator.

For his case to proceed to a wider recount of votes, Marcos has to demonstrate a substantial recovery of votes in the three pilot provinces.

This is not the first time that Marcos alleged irregularities in the discovery of wet ballots.

In April, he said that wet ballots from Camarines Sur were proof that the poll boxes had been opened and tampered with, a claim dismissed by Romulo Macalintal, a veteran election lawyer who is Robredo’s lead counsel.

Macalintal said that wet ballots are common in poll cases in the Philippines and protesters could just resort to the digital images of the election papers for their cases.