The camp of Bongbong Marcos blasted Vice President Robredo for "continuously cheating the Filipino people by depriving them of their rightful Vice President" as they affirmed their motion to set their election protest for preliminary conference before the Supreme Court (SC).


The Marcos camp yesterday, March 6, 2017, filed its 11-page reply to Robredo's opposition to set the electoral protest for preliminary conference before the SC, which is currently serving as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal.


It insisted that Robredo has not presented "any compelling reason" in accordance with the 2010 Rules of the PET on why the SC should not proceed with the case.


The former senator, through Marcos lawyer, George Erwin Garcia, said Robredo's opposition was "obviously dilatory in nature," accusing them of diverting the issue with "ambiguous and distorted arguments."


Marcos added in his pleading that Robredo made misleading statements when she insisted in her opposition that pending incidents have to be resolved first before a preliminary conference:

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"In a long line of decided cases, the Supreme Court has held that in an election protest, different causes of action can proceed independently of each other. This is because the sovereign will of the people is the core issue in an election protest ...


"Thus, the purpose of a Preliminary Conference is precisely to avoid unnecessary delays and speed up the process so that the people's voice will be heard." 

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Moreover, the Marcos camp said that Robredo is out "to prevent the truth about the massive cheating" allegedly perpetrated during the 2016 elections.


In their website, Marcos' legal team compared the ongoing delay of the preliminary conference in his election protest to that of former Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas. In Roxas' case, it only took the PET 2 months after the case was filed to schedule the preliminary conference.


<h3>
Leni wants PET to junk Marcos' protest
</h3>

In a 22-page Motion for Reconsideration, filed also yesterday, the camp of Robredo, asked the PET to reverse its decision to proceed with Marcos' protest questioning her election as VP, citing several issues which she argued should be the investigated by the PET first.


Included among these are the issue on unused SD cards found to contain data and diagnostics problems which caused the shutdown of the servers in Commission on Elections warehouse in Laguna.


Citing portions of the January 24 PET resolution, Robredo's lead lawyer, Romulo Macalintal, noted that "the PET ruled that Marcos' protest questioning the results in various provinces consisting of 662 municipalities and their component cities and the 2,537 clustered from five (5) highly urbanized cities, contained narration of ultimate facts on the alleged irregularities and anomalies in said areas and clustered precincts."


Macalintal argued that Marcos did not specifically point to poll irregularities in said 662 municipalities and component cities.
"If there's something that can be pointed to his allegations, it won't hit number above 57 towns," he said.


Macalintal was referring to the affidavits submitted pertaining only to 57 municipalities and component cities. 
"What Mr. Marcos wants is to include it all."


As to the recent PET resolution, the finding "found Marcos' protest sufficient in form and substance."
Explaining that this was simply a matter of course and is purely procedural, Macalintal stressed that this is not a setback for the Robredo camp.


In February, the PET denied Robredo's counter-protest to the poll protest of Marcos.


But to note, the January 24, 2017 ruling stressed that while the protest was found sufficient in substance, "it must be emphasized that, as to the veracity of the protestant's allegations, nothing yet has been proved."
Pertaining to the resolution, Macalintal said their side is "fully prepared to fight the legal battle to defend the real mandate of the Filipino people."


"It has faith in the integrity of the court and is confident that at the end of this fight, truth will prevail," he ended.

<h3>
Bongbong, Robredo in SD cards tussle
</h3>

To recall, the camps of Marcos and Robredo got into a tussle over supposedly untouched SD cards in several Vote Counting Machines (VCMs) which were found to have contained data.


Following the discovery, the Marcos camp claimed that "massive fraud was indeed committed during the last elections," insisting that the SD cards should have been empty since the VCMs were supposed to be untouched.


The Robredo camp fired back, stressing that the SD cards cannot be used as evidence to support Marcos' electoral protest because it is not covered in the complaint filed before the SC.


The Marcos camp said in its reply that while such issues would be discussed in the preliminary conference, these could eventually be threshed out for the electoral protest to be expedited:

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"The conduct of the Preliminary Conference cannot be stifled by the pending incidents in this case," the pleading stated.
"If protestee Robredo has nothing to hide, why does she keep trying to delay the proceedings? What is there to fear about a simple Preliminary Conference?" 

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In an ambush interview yesterday (March 6, 2017) during the filing, lawyer Victor Rodriguez, Marcos' legal counsel, accused Robredo for perpetrating delaying tactics to hamper their electoral protest.


Rodriguez added that Robredo is scared that "the truth will come out" as their camp is determined to prove that it is Marcos who really won the vice presidential race, not her:

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"Not content with having cheated Marcos and her way to vice presidency, Leni Robredo is continuously cheating the Filipino people by depriving them of their rightful vice president and for the speedy resolution of this election protest," Rodriguez said.


"Obviously, it is Leni Robredo's interest to further delay the whole process. She is afraid of the truth. She is afraid of the real mandate of the Filipino people ...


"It has become obvious that delay has become the name of Leni Robredo's game and it has been months after Marcos filed this election protest. And they are doing everything (to put a stop to the process). She is determined to suppress the genuine will of the Filipino people ...


"There is no resolution yet on the ex-parte motion to set the case for preliminary conference. But we believe and we are very positive that the Tribunal will eventually notice that all that Robredo is doing is merely to delay the speedy disposition of this electoral protest." 

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<h3>
Robredo camp asks SC to set aside poll protest
</h3>

The Robredo camp yesterday filed a Motion for Reconsideration before the SC in an attempt to dissuade the SC from allowing former Senator Marcos' electoral protest to proceed.


In their motion filed yesterday, Robredo, through her lawyer Macalintal, asked the High Court to reconsider its decision to hear Marcos' electoral protest.


It will be recalled that the SC denied Robredo's appeal to dismiss the electoral protest in an eight-page resolution dated January 30, where it affirmed its jurisdiction over the petition which it said was sufficient in form and substance.
Macalintal dismissed the resolution finding the protest sufficient in form and substance as merely "a matter of course and purely procedural," saying that it is not a setback for their camp.



Sources: 

<ol class="article-sources">
<li>
Marcos camp raps Leni on "delaying tactics" by Tribute Wires , March 6, 2017, <a href="https://goo.gl/Lrp2Ig" target="_blank" class="news_link" title="Source">The Daily Tribune</a>
</li>
<li>
BBM Camp: Robredo delaying election protest by Bongbong Marcos , March 6, 2017, <a href="https://goo.gl/2k0SYS" target="_blank" class="news_link" title="Source">https://www.bongbongmarcos.com</a>
</li>
</ol>


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PROTEST WATCH: Robredo is out to prevent the truth about the massive cheating - Marcos camp