Marcos camp's conspiracy claim laughable, Robredo spokesman says

MANILA, Philippines — There was no conspiracy with the Commission on Elections to help Leni Robredo, then a member of the House, win the vice presidency, her spokesman said.

Barry Gutierrez, a spokesman for the vice president, said that the spokesman of losing vice presidential bet Ferdinand Marcos, Vic Rodriguez, was "again pulling stories out of thin air."

Gutierrez said that Marcos and Rodriguez seemed to be "pulling every stunt out of the cheater's playbook" because they were getting desperate as their lies to the public were slowly being exposed.

"It’s laughable how Mr. Marcos and his spokesperson seem to be pulling every stunt out of the Cheater’s Playbook, getting more desperate in the face of proof that they are lying to the public," Gutierrez said in a statement.

The Commission on Elections on Thursday supported the position of Robredo's camp that a threshold of 25 percent should be used in ascertaining vote validity.

The Comelec filed its own comment on the issue in the electoral protest that the former senator lodged challenging Robredo's victory in 2016.

The elections agency said, "The Comelec, in the exercise of its constitutional mandate to administer elections and decide all questions relating to elections, has decided to calibrate the automated voter counting system for the May 9, 2016 National and Local Elections to read as valid votes, marks that cover at least about 25% (when seen by human eyes) of the oval for each candidate."

Comelec position shows conspiracy, Marcos camp claims

Just hours later, Rodriguez slammed the Comelec's position and alleged that this was evidence of "conspiracy" to make Robredo win the hotly-contested election.

Robredo defeated Marcos by more than 260,000 votes.

Rodriguez also claimed that the Comelec's resolution in September 2016 was done four months after the elections and was an "afterthought" to justify the cheating done to favor Robredo.

Gutierrez however shot down this claim and said that the Marcos lawyer was lying anew.

According to the vice president's spokesman, as early as February 2016, media organizations had already reported that the COMELEC would use the 25-percent threshold to "lessen the disenfrachisement and give fuller effect to the intention of each voter."

"The September 2016 resolution that Mr. Rodriguez was referring to merely affirmed that the VCMs [vote counting machines] read the votes correctly, as found by the Random Manual Audit conducted after the elections," Gutierrez said.

He added that the accusations of the Marcos camp should not come as a surprise as they seemed to be "well-versed in the art of deception."

Sen. Paolo Benigno "Bam" Aquino IV meanwhile said that the Supreme Court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, should use the 25-percent threshold after the Comelec comment.

"In the end, I am confident that VP Leni will be vindicated from the false accusations made against her and her victory will be proven," he said in a statement.