MANILA, Philippines — The camp of Vice President Leni Robredo is following up with the Presidential Electoral Tribunal its motion for a probe into a potential leak of election data to former Rep. Glenn Chong (Biliran), who has accused the vice president of electoral fraud but is not party to a pending election protest against her.
The latest motion asks the PET to act on a previous petition to investigate — and to have Chong’s comment expunged from the record.
“Despite his lengthy discussion on why he should not be held accountable for the data in his possession, Attorney Glenn Chong still managed not to address the issue,” Robredo’s lawyer Romulo Macalintal said in a statement released to the media on Thursday.
Macalintal noted in the petition filed in September that Chong attended the a Senate hearing on election reforms’ as a resource person on July 31. Chong presented the audit logs of Municipality of Ragay, Camarines Sur, during the Senate hearing, and posted about it on Facebook.
READ: Robredo camp seeks probe into 'leaked' audit logs from Camarines Sur
The vice president’s camp said the audit logs containg information exclusive to parties of the case, as Camarines Sur is one of the pilot provinces identified by former Sen. Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos in his poll protest.
Chong claimed he got his data from the Senate Electoral Tribunal over the case filed by former Metro Manila Development Authority chairman Francis Tolentino.
But Macalintal pointed out that Ragay, Camarines Sur is not part of Tolentino’s case.
Chong then claimed he actually got the audit logs from former Rep. Luis Villafuerte’s election protest. But Macalintal pointed out that Ragay is not part of Villafuerte’s election protest, which contests the results of the third district of Camarines Sur.
“Thus, how can the Municipality of Ragay, Camarines Sur, belonging to the first district be included in the election protest contesting the results of the elections in the third district?” Macalintal asked.
While Chong often speaks publicly on Marcos' vice presidential election protest against Robredo, Marcos' own legal team disowned the lawyer in a comment filed in PET on October 20.